The beautiful queen, Joanna I of Naples

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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087981720

THE BEAUTIFUL
QUEEN

JOANNA I. OF NAPLES

THE BEAUTIFUL
QUEEN

JOANNA I. OF NAPLES

By
FRANGESGA M. STEELE

AUTHOR OF

" The Village Blacksmith; 1 " The Story of the English Pope?
" St. Bridget of Sweden? etc.

WITH SEVENTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS,
INCLUDING TWO PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES

New York

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1910

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY .... I

ii. joanna's childhood ... 17

in. petrarch's first visit to Naples 33

IV. THE LAMB AMONG WOLVES . . 48

V. PLOTS AND COUNTER-PLOTS . . 66

VI. THE MURDER OF ANDREW . . 80

VII. WHAT FOLLOWED THE MURDER . 96

VIII. JOANNA MARRIES A SECOND TIME . 112

IX. THE KING OF HUNGARY'S VENGEANCE 128

X. JOANNA PLEADS BEFORE THE POPE

AND CARDINALS . . . I42

xi. joanna's acquittal and its

RESULTS ..... I58

v

VI

Contents

CHAP.

PAGE

XII.

PEACE IS PROCLAIMED

172

XIII.

THE CORONATION OF JOANNA .

187

XIV.

Joanna's second widowhood

204

XV.

THE DEATH OF ACCIAJUOLI

222

XVI.

URBAN V. RETURNS TO ROME .

236

XVII.

JOANNA AND CHARLES OF SWEDEN .

247

XVIII.

joanna's fourth marriage .

263

XIX.

THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT SCHISM

276

XX.

JOANNA IS EXCOMMUNICATED .

292

XXI.

JOANNA IS BESIEGED

3°3

XXII.

THE CAPTIVE QUEEN

3*5

XXIII.

THE FINAL TRAGEDY

3 2 7

GENEALOGICAL TABLE ....

facing

33 6

SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND BOOKS

CON-

SULTED IN WRITING THIS BIOGRAPHY .

337

INDEX

• . .

.

339

ILLUSTRATIONS

queen joanna Photogravure Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

PETRARCH 34

PORTRAIT OF A LADY (FORMERLY ATTRIBUTED TO

Leonardo da vinci) . . . Photogravure 44

BOCCACCIO 106

PONT BENEZET . .148

CLEMENT VI. 154

AVIGNON 164

QUEEN JOANNA (WOODCUT) 200

QUEEN JOANNA 226

URBAN V 244

ST. BRIDGET ON HORSEBACK . .... 260

GREGORY XI. 272

ST. BRIDGET DELIVERING HER RULE . . . .286

URBAN VI 298

CHARLES III. OF NAPLES 312

CASTEL D'OVO 3 2 4

TOMB OF QUEEN JOANNA 330

vii

THE

BEAUTIFUL QUEEN

JOANNA OF NAPLES

CHAPTER I
Introductory

" For she was beautiful ; her beauty made
The bright world dim, and everything beside
Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade."

Shelley.

THE subject of this biography was, according
to all accounts, one of the loveliest women
of all time, but there is much difference of opinion
among historians about her character. Some of
her biographers regard her as a saint and a
martyr, a victim to calumny ; others have cast
the vilest reproaches against her, even suggesting
that she was, as her detractors maintained, one
of the conspirators in the assassination of her
first husband ; but all are agreed that she was
supremely beautiful and exceedingly talented.

Joanna I. of Naples, whose romantic story re-
sembles in many respects that of Mary Queen of
Scots, with whom she is often compared, is said

2 The Beautiful Queen

to have been the most beautiful Queen that ever
lived. The theme of poets, whose friend and
liberal patroness she was, all Europe rang with her
praise in the middle of the fourteenth century,
when she was known in all the foreign courts of
Europe as "la douce Reine." Her own court
was magnificent and highly civilised and refined ;
it attracted the principal men of genius of the age,
poets, of whom Petrarch was the first, and writers,
with Boccaccio as chief, frequented it.

If it be true that the women and the countries
that have no history only are happy, we may rightly
infer that intensely unhappy must have been the
" sweet Queen " whose story is related in the
following pages, and the kingdom over which she
ruled, for their history during the whole of her
reign, from 1343 to 1382, was most exciting and
often dramatic in its interest.

The scene is constantly changing from the luxury
of the most brilliant court in Europe to the hard-
ships of the battle-field, from the gay songs of the
troubadour to the war-cry of the barbarian invader,
from palace to prison, from the ballroom to the
torture-chamber, from the love-stories of brave men
and lovely women to the devastating ravages of
the Plague, from that " fragment of Heaven vouch-
safed to earth, Naples," to the fiends that in-
habited it.

The mysteries of history are more enthralling

Introductory 3

than the mysteries of fiction, which only remain
mysteries to the end of the volume, while most
of the former remain unsolved to the end of time.
The central event of the reign of Joanna, the
murder of Andrew of Hungary, is one of the
unguessed mysteries of history : we look " down
the long arches of the years," and we see historians
attempting to solve it, some accusing Joanna — who
was certainly innocent of consenting to it ; others
fixing the guilt upon Louis of Taranto, Joanna's
second husband ; others on Charles of Durazzo ;
others again on Philippa the Catanese, and her grand-
daughter Sancha ; and yet others on the Countess
of Durazzo, — all of whom are dramatis fersona in
the drama we are about to describe ; but the actual
murderers will never be known — probably they were
some hired assassins. One thing is certain : there
was a plot to assassinate Andrew the Hungarian,
and it succeeded ; but who all the chief conspirators
were can never be certainly affirmed, though we may
be able to fix upon them with a high degree of
probability.

Just as difficult is it to get a true picture of a
Queen whose biographers vary so much in their
estimation of her character, and this from reasons
national, political, and religious. The fact that in
her later years Joanna was unfortunately the partisan
of the anti-pope Clement VII. prejudiced some
writers so deeply against her that their judgment

4 The Beautiful Queen

of her character was completely warped. The
gentle, learned, and refined Pope Clement VI. was
her best friend and a firm believer in her innocence,
while the haughty, passionate Urban VI., although
a Neapolitan himself, was one of her bitterest
enemies.

It is gready to be regretted that neither of her
celebrated contemporaries, Petrarch and Boccaccio,
ever wrote her biography, for both knew her in-
timately, and were in a position to throw light on
her character, and on the mystery which darkened
her youth and cast a shadow on the whole of her
life. Both of these men of genius had a great
admiration for her, especially Petrarch, who was
one of her domestic chaplains. One of the later
biographers of this " famous princess — as famous
as ever lived" — Giannone, calls her "the wisest
of princesses, the Light of Italy, and the Jewel
of the World."

Before we begin to tell the story of her life, it
will be as well to clear the ground by giving a brief
sketch of her immediate predecessors on the throne,
and, to help to the better understanding of sub-
sequent events, to show the relation in which she
stood to Andrew of Hungary and the princes of
Taranto. As many readers dislike retrospective
writing, this shall be done as shortly as possible.

The crown of Naples passed from the house
of Swabia to the house of Anjou in 1269, when

Introductory 5

Charles of Anjou was invested with the Two
Sicilies — that is, the island of Sicily and the kingdom
of Naples — by Pope Clement IV.

Manfred, the illegitimate son of Frederick II. of
Swabia, was then acting as Regent for his nephew
Conradine, at that time a minor, and he sent am-
bassadors to Charles I. to try to avert the loss of
the Neapolitan throne. Charles's reply was more
forcible than polite. " Go," he said, " and tell the
Sultan of Lucera from me, that I will either send
him to hell, or he will send me to Paradise."

Manfred was subsequently slain at the battle
of Benevento, and Charles I., after being crowned
in Rome, proceeded without further opposition
to Naples ; but young Conradine now attempted to
retain possession of his throne, aided by the Duke
of Austria, and falling into Charles's hands was
executed with seven or eight of his followers on
a scaffold covered with crimson velvet and erected
in the market-place of Naples.

Charles of Anjou, a bold and ambitious king,
was succeeded by his son, Charles II., Prince of
Salerno, who at the time was a prisoner in Spain
and only obtained his liberty two years after his
father's death, on condition of leaving his three
elder sons as hostages in Spain, where they were
compelled to remain twelve years.

Charles II. was a true father to his people, and
administered the government of his kingdom with

6 The Beautiful Queen

a strict sense of justice, not suffering the Neapolitans
to be oppressed by Provencal adventurers, as they
had been in his father's reign.

In the fourteenth century kings transferred their
rights to kingdoms, just as fathers divided their
property among their children — by will ; and
Charles II., whose wife, Maria of Hungary, had
brought him the Hungarian crown, left Hungary to
the heirs of his eldest son, Charles Martel. His
second son, St. Louis, the Bishop of Toulouse,
died in his father's lifetime, at the age of twenty-
three, and was afterwards canonised. To his third
son, Robert, he left the Two Sicilies — that is, the
island of Sicily and the kingdom of Naples — and
also the duchies of Provence and Piedmont. To
his fourth son he left the principality of Taranto,
which embraced nearly half the kingdom of Naples,
and to his fifth son, afterwards the Duke of Durazzo,
a considerable part of the remaining half, so that
the King of Naples was really only the chief of
princes who, if they combined against him, were
as powerful as himself.

Charles Martel's descendants never liked the dis-
position of Charles II. 's dominions, and the great
tragedy of Joanna's life was due in a large measure
to the fact that the Hungarians were ever en-
deavouring to gain possession of Naples. Thus we
find Canrobert of Hungary, son of Charles Martel,
claimed the throne of the Two Sicilies as his right

Introductory 7

on Charles II. 's death, and the case was pleaded
before Pope John XXIL, who decided in favour of
Robert, granting him also Provence and Piedmont.

The Neapolitans had cause to be very grateful to
the Pope for this decision, for Robert proved an
excellent king, and earned the titles of the Wise and
the Good from his subjects, by whom he was greatly
beloved. In 1309, the year of Charles II. 's death,
Pope Clement V. transferred the Papal See and the
Curia or Papal court from Rome to Avignon, which
being in Provence was within the dominion of the
King of Naples : this move very much weakened
the temporal power of the Popes in Italy, and left
Rome forlorn and deserted, a prey to her turbulent
inhabitants.

Robert, with his two brothers, Charles and
St. Louis, had only been liberated from their
captivity in Spain a few years before he came to the
throne. During his imprisonment he had acquired
studious habits, and a great love of literature which
never afterwards forsook him, and which made him
a great patron of learning and learned men, so that
his court became the most intellectual in Europe,
and the resort of men of genius, who found in
Robert the Wise a liberal and powerful protector.

He gathered together at enormous expense the
richest library in Europe, and placed it under the
care of Paul of Perugia, one of the greatest scholars
of his age. He was indeed almost too passionately

8 The Beautiful Queen

fond of books for a sovereign in those warlike
times, and used to read even in his walks. He
was a philosopher, a theologian, and a physician,
but he had his limitations, for he despised poetry
and was unacquainted with the works of his great
contemporary, Dante. He was also a brilliant
soldier, and is said to have been an excellent orator.

He married, at the age of eighteen, Violante,
Princess of Aragon, by whom he had an only son,
Charles Duke of Calabria, the father of Joanna, to
whom he was most tenderly attached, and whom he
treated more as a brother than a son, making him
his companion and confidant, and entrusting him
from his earliest youth with the government of
Naples, from which he was himself often called away
on military business.

The Duke of Calabria was neither so learned a
student nor so celebrated a soldier as his father, but,
like his grandfather Charles II., he was distinguished
for his justice — a quality which he transmitted to
his daughter Joanna in an eminent degree. Two
anecdotes are told of him in connection with this
virtue.

He was in the habit of visiting all his dominions
once a year, to see that his humbler subjects were
not oppressed by the great barons, and on one
occasion he discovered that a certain Count had
taken an estate by force from a vassal, because it
afforded a pleasant site for his own residence.

Introductory 9

Charles sent for the Count, and praising the lovely
view and beautiful situation of his house, begged him
as a friend to give it up to him, that he might build
a royal palace there, promising to pay the full price
for the property. The Count angrily refused to do
anything of the kind ; but said if the Duke chose to
take it by force he must do so, but, as he was famed
for his justice, he did not fear this alternative.

The Duke replied, " Now you know what your
vassal must feel ; and unless you restore his lands
immediately, I will take your head as well as your
estates." Needless to say, the Count at once made
restitution to his vassal.

Another of the Duke's customs was to sit every
day in the palace of justice, in front of the Castel
Nuovo, which his father built, and hear the pleas of
all his subjects who had any grievances ; and lest
the servants should prevent the poor from having
access to him, he had a large bell placed at the
outer gate for the applicants to ring, that he might
hear it.

One day an old horse, that belonged to a knight
named Marco Capece, which was straying about the
city, rubbed itself against the wall, and inadvertently
rang the bell. The Duke ordered the porter to
bring in the complainant, and amid the laughter of
the court the man returned to announce that it was
only Marco Capece's old horse.

Charles, however, said that a horse deserved

io The Beautiful Queen

justice as well as his other subjects, and sent for
the owner and rebuked him severely for his neglect
of an old and faithful servant, and ordered him
to take better care of it, under pain of losing the
pension he in a measure owed to it.

It is a pity the Neapolitans do not take this old
story to heart, for there is perhaps no city in
Europe in which horses are worse treated than in
Naples.

In 1326 Charles left Naples for Florence, which
he had agreed to govern for ten years at the request
of the inhabitants, taking with him his wife, Maria
of Valois, his uncles, the princes of Taranto and
Durazzo, sixteen of the great Neapolitan barons,
and two hundred other knights with golden spurs,
their wives and children.

The princes and knights travelled on richly
caparisoned horses, wearing cloaks of cloth-of-gold
of various colours over their brilliant armour : the
ladies wore dresses and mantles of cloth-of-gold or
silver, or velvet or silk, either violet, crimson,
purple, or green, both material and colour being
determined by their rank. They travelled either
on horseback or in litters, or in springless chariots
covered with the gayest coloured velvet or some
other costly material. Both knights and ladies
wore for travelling long silk hoods embroidered
with grotesque devices, these were fastened under
the chin with jewelled clasps, and hung down

Introductory 1 1

behind in two long points almost reaching to the
ground.

Each knight had at- least three squires, one of
whom carried his master's arms on high. Hence the
expression " With a high hand." Another carried his
helmet on his saddle, and the third led his charger.

This cavalcade is said to have been the most
magnificent which had travelled through Italy since
the fall of the Roman Empire. In its train were
1,500 sumpter-mules of the barons, followed by
large numbers of other animals carrying the baggage
of the knights, and a large body of infantry. They
started on May 31st from Naples, but stayed some
weeks at Sienna, so they did not reach Florence
until July 31st. Here they received a splendid
reception, the streets being brilliantly decorated and
their path strewn with flowers.

The court of Joanna's mother, Maria, Duchess of
Calabria, at Florence was famed for its magnificence
and for the sumptuous entertainments, both banquets
and balls, given by the Duke and his wife. Maria
appears to have won the hearts of the Florentine
ladies, by a policy calculated to appeal to the femin-
ine mind in all ages. It seems that the Florentine
men had forbidden their wives and daughters to
wear what they considered a disreputable ornament
of thick tresses of white and yellow silk, which they
arranged round their faces instead of their hair. In
December, 1326, the Florentine dames petitioned

12 The Beautiful Queen

the Duchess to get her husband to repeal the sump-
tuary law which forbade them to wear this hideous
head-dress, and the Duchess prevailed upon her
husband to do so. The Duke probably thought
in this fourteenth century that " wilful woman must
have her way," just as it is allowed her as generally
in the twentieth.

In the spring of 1327 Maria of Valois, Duchess
of Calabria, gave birth to a prince, who died a few
days after his public baptism, to the great grief of
all the royal family, for he was the heir to the throne
of the Two Sicilies. The following December the
Duke was recalled by his father, Robert, to Naples
to assist in repelling an invasion of Louis the
Bavarian, Emperor of Germany. The next March
Joanna was born.

It must be remembered that in the fourteenth
century the year began on March 25th, instead
of on January 1st, so that the date of the future
Queen's birth was 1327 according to the old style
of reckoning, 1328 according to the Gregorian or
new style — which, by the way, England was the
last country in Europe to adopt.

It will not be uninteresting perhaps to pause for
a moment to describe briefly the apartments of
the Duchess of Calabria upon this interesting
occasion.

There was a suite of three apartments. The first
was called " the chamber of parade," and was hung

Introductory 1 3

with crimson satin, embroidered with gold ; the
floor was covered entirely with crimson velvet.
This room contained one bed, curtained with crimson
satin, and with a counterpane of the same material.
The bed was only used to accommodate Joanna
upon the day of her baptism. A low chair and a
buffet, under a canopy of crimson cloth-of-gold,
completed the furniture of this apartment. The
shelves of the buffet were covered with the finest
white linen, and on them stood flagons, cups, and
vases of gold and silver.

This ante-chamber opened into the bedroom of
the Duchess, the walls of which were completely
draped with white silk damask hangings; curtains
of the same material were festooned over the
windows and doors and between and round the
two beds, which stood five feet apart under one
tester or canopy, similarly draped. The counter-
panes of these beds were of ermine.

This apartment also contained a huge buffet,
which stood under a canopy of crimson cloth-of-
gold ; the shelves were covered with the finest
damask cloths, and on them were placed crystal
vessels, ornamented with gold and jewels, and never
used except upon these august occasions. Massive
gold candlesticks stood at each end of the buffet,
and the huge wax-candles in them were only lighted
upon the entrance of visitors, but two smaller tapers
were kept burning day and night for fifteen days

H The Beautiful Queen

after the birth, during which period it was not
Etiquette to admit daylight.

The innermost room, which was assigned to the
new-born infant, was also draped in white silk, but
of an inferior quality.

Immediately Joanna was born she was placed in
the hands of Philippa the Catanese, who was destined
to play a tragic part in the drama of which Joanna
was the heroine.

In the same year that Joanna was born her father
founded the celebrated monastery of San Martino,
between Naples and the Castle of St. Elmo. It was
one of the last acts of his life, for before the year was
ended Robert the Wise and the Neapolitans were
overwhelmed with grief by the death of the Duke,
caused by a fever while engaged in his favourite sport
of hawking. During Charles's last illness Robert
sat day and night by his son's bedside, endeavouring
to prolong his life by his own skill as a physician.
When all remedies failed, and the unfortunate Duke,
still in the prime of life, passed away, the King
exclaimed : " The crown has fallen from my head.
Woe to me, woe to you ! "

Charles had always been the darling of the people
and the support of the throne, and his death was a
great blow to the nation, as well as to the King,
who idolised his only son and the heir to his
kingdom. The late Duke was a handsome man,
of fine figure, courageous, though not fond of

Introductory 1 5

war ; his abilities were inferior to those of his father
and daughter, but he was of an amiable disposition
which endeared him to every one.

He was buried in the church of St. Clare, founded
by his father in 13 10. A story is told of the Duke
and his father with regard to this church, on which
Robert had expended immense sums of money, both
in building and ornamenting it. When finished
he took. Charles to see it, and pointed out its
beauties, to him ; then, suspecting from the Duke's
manner that he did not particularly admire it, he
asked him what he thought of it. The Duke
with more candour than tact said he thought it was
more like a stable than a church.

" May it please God, my son, that you are not
the first to eat in this stable," said Robert, irritated
at Charles's criticism. As it happened, the poor
Duke was the first member of his family to be
buried in this church, which the Neapolitans took to
be the meaning of the rebuke.

There was still a hope that Charles might be
succeeded by a son, for Maria of Valois was
expecting an addition to her family when her
husband died ; but a few months after his death
she gave birth to another daughter, who was named
Maria, and from that time Joanna was recognised
as her grandfather's heiress and successor.

The Duchess only survived her husband three
years. She died in 1321, leaving the two little

1 6 The Beautiful Queen

princesses, Joanna and Maria, to the care of their
grandfather and his second wife, the devout Queen
Sancha. Maria, whose brother Philip of Valois,
the first King of France of the house of Valois,
came to the throne in 1328, left half her fortune
of sixty thousand francs, which she received from
her father, and half her lands in Naples, to each
of her daughters, but to Joanna she left the largest
share of her jewels, clothes, and personal effects.

Little is known as to her character, beyond the
fact of her popularity in Florence ; but she is
believed to have been a good and virtuous princess,
whose early death is to be lamented as it deprived
her children of a mother's care.

CHAPTER II

Joanna's Childhood

A MINOR mystery in the life of Joanna I. is
-**■ why so wise a man as Robert the Good
should have chosen Philippa the Catanese, whom
historians speak of as " a woman sprung from the
dregs of the people, originally a laundress," as the
most fitting person to have charge of the heiress
to the Neapolitan throne. Whether Philippa was
worthy of the confidence reposed in her by the King
and Queen or not, it was an unwise choice Philippa's
low origin afterwards reflected injuriously upon her
royal charge, and roused at the time the envy of
her contemporaries, who, prejudiced by the favour
shown her, were ready to attribute every vice to
Joanna's governess.

Philippa was a native of Catania in Sicily, the
wife of a Sicilian fisherman and herself a laundress,
who was called in by Violante of Aragon to act as
wet-nurse to her son Charles, the Duke of Calabria,

'7 2

1 8 The Beautiful Queen

when she was in Sicily with her husband, who was
engaged in an expedition against the Sicilians.
Philippa was not only beautiful and graceful, but
intelligent also, and she soon acquired courtly man-
ners, and took such tender care of her foster-son
that Violante henceforth heaped honours upon her.

Robert's seneschal, Raymond de Chabannes, had at
this time a favourite Moor who acted as his cook
and steward, and pleased his master so well that he
gave him his own names in baptism, and set him
free, and when he resigned the seneschalship recom-
mended Robert to take the Moor in his place.
Raymond the Moor soon became as great a favour-
ite with the King as Philippa was with Violante, and
when the Catanese's first husband died they arranged
a second marriage for Philippa with the new senes-
chal, now raised to the rank of a knight.

Before Violante died she begged Robert to be
good to Philippa, and when he married Sancha,
another Aragon princess, he gave Philippa to her as
one of her ladies of the bed-chamber, and Sancha
grew equally fond of her. When the Duke
of Calabria, her foster-son, married Catherine of
Austria, Philippa was made first lady of the bed-
chamber to her ; and when his second wife, Maria
of Valois, went with him to Florence, the Catanese
accompanied her in the same office.

The Angevine princes were celebrated for their
fidelity in rewarding the attachment of their subjects,

Joanna's Childhood 19

in no matter how low a station, by bestowing upon
them high posts in their household, which may
account for the affection and gratitude of so many
of the Neapolitan royal family to Philippa. Her
contemporaries, with the credulity of their age, how-
ever, attributed it to magic potions, in which the
Sicilian women were said to be very clever. Boccaccio
made a much shrewder guess at the source of her
influence, attributing it to her skill in making
cosmetics and confectionery.

She succeeded in winning Joanna's affection also,
and is believed to have lavished a mother's care upon
her ; and when the young Queen came to the throne
she was the first lady in her court, and was treated
with the greatest respect.

It is impossible that Philippa could have risen to
so high a position, from so lowly an origin, unless
she had had great talent as well as personal gifts to
recommend her, for she was a trusted servant of
Robert for forty-five years, and the devout Queen
Sancha had such regard for her that it was due to
her influence that Joanna was placed under her
charge.

Both Robert and Sancha must have had solid
reasons for this choice, for we read in Carracciola's
Life of Joanna how particular they were in choosing
the little Princess's attendants. The King took
special care that nothing should be said or done in
the child's presence from which she could learn evil,

20 The Beautiful Queen

and to that end he confided her to chaste matrons ;
moreover, he took some nuns out of their convents,
with the permission of the Pope, to instruct her in
all Christian duties and in the religious ceremonies
at which she would have to assist, and to train her
in industrious habits. Indeed, so strictly did Robert
and Sancha bring their little grandchild up that they
would not allow any one to be seen in her company
who wore rouge or paint or the hair of any dead
person.

It was a custom in the fourteenth century, when
gross ignorance was the rule in all ranks of life, to
entrust the education of royal princes and princesses
to the religious orders, whose members were gene-
rally more cultivated, and for this purpose, as in the
case of Joanna, nuns were permitted by dispensa-
tion from the Pope to leave their enclosure and
live in the palace where their services were required.
Thus it was quite in accordance with the spirit
of the age for Robert to send for two nuns to
come to court, and try to form the character of the
future Queen on religious principles, and it was
particularly acceptable to Sancha.

This unworldly Queen desired to leave the world
and join the Poor Clares, the strictest order of the
Church, for whom she had built a convent in Naples ;
and she was only deterred from taking this step by
Pope John XXII., who very wisely told her she
would be neglecting her duty as a wife if she did

Joanna's Childhood 21

so, and thereby rendering herself displeasing to
Almighty" God, instead of her proposed sacrifice
being acceptable to Him. The pious Queen there-
fore remained in the world until the death of her
husband.

As Joanna grew older, still more elaborate rules
were laid down by her grandfather with regard to
her bringing up. None of those who dressed her
were to be of low birth, or unpolished manners ;
her court was to be presided over by a man of the
highest prudence and authority, whom the nobles
and their sons who frequented it would obey. He
who gave the future Queen water for her hands at
table, as was then the custom, must be a knight or
greater than a knight, and so must those who bore
the dishes to her, and who tasted them to see that
they were not poisoned before they were handed to
her. The cupbearer must do his duty with the
greatest fidelity, lest any harm, designed or inad-
vertent, should come to the young Princess. The
major-domo was to observe at supper that she did
not eat anything greedily or ask for it arrogantly,
and if he detected her in this he was to advise her
secretly, not publicly, as that would be indecorous
and exceedingly disagreeable to the King, and he
was not to do it a second time if she amended at
the first reproof.

The King also ordered that the most illustrious
doctors should assist at supper and dinner always,

22 The Beautiful Queen

lest any unwholesome food should be offered the
child, and to see that she only took as much as
was necessary for health. It seems quite clear
from all these minute directions that there could
have been nothing objectionable in Philippa the
Catanese, except her lowly origin, or Robert, who
took such elaborate pains to shield his grandchild
from moral and physical evil, would never have
selected her as the governess and confidante, and
we may say foster-mother, of the Princess.

We have dwelt at some length upon these
details, because some historians laid all Joanna's
faults, real and imaginary, at Philippa's door.

Her education included Latin and French, both
of which languages she read and wrote as well
as her own ; and besides the study of theology
and philosophy, she was taught to sew and to
cook, and used to exult girlishly over her cousins,
the young princesses of Taranto and Durazzo, who
were brought up with her and her sister Maria,
when she excelled in any of these things.

In the year 1331 Robert caused the oaths of
allegiance to be taken to Joanna, with the re-
version to Maria in the event of the death of the
elder child. This was necessary to secure, in those
turbulent times, the peaceable succession to the
throne on his death. The following year the Prince
of Taranto died without male issue, and he left
the principality of Taranto to Joanna ; by preferring

Joanna's Childhood 23

her to the prince of the house of Durazzo, he made
her claim to the throne of Naples and Sicily much
more secure. As the heiress of all the rights and
estates of her father, she was now styled the Duchess
of Calabria and the Countess of Provence.

As soon as Robert had decided to make Joanna
his heiress, he took care to let her, child as she was,
receive the principal men of the State, that she
might hear them speak and learn how to answer
them ; and she so pleased the King by her manners
that he frequently presented the Ambassadors of
foreign courts, who came to Naples to see him,
to her, and let them know she was his heiress. As
she grew older her cultivated mind and her remark-
able talents and great charm of manner, as well as
her extraordinary beauty, which increased daily, made
the death of her father less grievous to the King, who
saw his granddaughter promised to make a good
queen, and be a worthy successor to his throne.

Unfortunately Robert's anxiety on Joanna's ac-
count did not stop here. To make her succession
still more secure, as he thought, he arranged a
marriage for her when she was only five years
old, with Andrew, Prince of Hungary, the third
son of Canrobert, King of Hungary. In this matter
Robert is said to have acted on the advice of Pope
John XXII., who desired thus to unite the opposing
claims of the two elder branches of the Angevine
family to the crown of Naples.

24 The Beautiful Queen

As we saw in the last chapter, the eldest and
Hungarian branch of the Anjou line had never liked
the disposition of Charles the Lame, in leaving the
throne of the Two Sicilies to his second son, Robert ;
and the Pope hoped a marriage with Canrobert's
third son, Andrew, with the heiress to the Neapolitan
throne would prevent Canrobert and his heirs from
attempting to wrest the crown from the reigning
branch.

Accordingly Robert arranged this unfortunate
marriage between Andrew, then a little boy of seven,
and Joanna, a child of five. These child-marriages
among royal families were not uncommon. A dis-
pensation had to be obtained from the Pope, and
sometimes, as in the case of Joanna's contemporaries,
Magnus II. of Sweden and Blanche of Dampierre,
the marriage was celebrated by proxy. It is true
Magnus was eighteen at the time of his marriage,
but the little Belgian Princess Blanche was only
ten. The great Queen Margaret of Sweden, the
Semiramis of the North, as she was called, was only
ten when in 1363 she married Haquin and was
brought to the Swedish court to be educated.
Another of these child-marriages was that of Prince
John of Bohemia — he was like Andrew of Hungary,
of feeble intellect — who when only nine years
old was married in 1330, just three years before
Joanna, to Margaret, daughter of Prince Henry,
Count and ruler of Tyrol. Margaret, who is known

Joanna's Childhood 25

to history as " Mucklemouthed Meg," was a few
years older than her husband, and her marriage
turned out more disastrous, if less tragic, than that
of Andrew and Joanna.

Robert, however, determined that Andrew should
come to Naples, and, after the wedding of these two
children had been celebrated there with all possible
pomp, decided that the young prince should remain
at the Neapolitan court, and be educated there and
subjected to the influence of its culture, for the
Hungarians were at this time a semi-barbarian nation,
rude and uneducated. By his attempt to conciliate
the Hungarian branch of the Angevins with this
alliance, Robert disappointed the elder princes of
Taranto and Durazzo, both brave, talented youths,
who hoped their uncle would bestow the hand of
the heiress of the Two Sicilies upon one of them,
or on one of their younger brothers, all of whom
were well known to Joanna, and constant frequenters
of the Neapolitan court.

It was unfortunate for every one concerned that
Robert's choice fell upon Andrew, whom he had
not seen, instead of on one of the other attractive
cousins of Joanna. The boy was so young, when he
arrived in Naples to celebrate his marriage, that the
King could not possibly tell what time and education
might do for him, or how his character would develop ;
but he seems to have been almost, if not quite, imbecile.
It was, however, too late to retract now, and Robert

26 The Beautiful Queen

received the child-bridegroom and his father, Can-
robert, the King of Hungary, with every sign of joy.

Canrobert was attended by a number of Hungarian
barons, who were as astonished at the magnificence,
culture, and refinement of the Neapolitan court as
the Neapolitan princes and nobles were at the bar-
barian appearance and rude, uncultivated manners
of the Hungarians.

This marriage, which was destined to turn out
so disastrously, was celebrated with the utmost
pomp and splendour. The subsidiary courts of
Taranto and Durazzo, with their princes, were all
present as well as the Hungarians. Ambassadors
from all the other states and principalities of Italy
were there, and among these the most numerous
and the most gorgeously attired were the Florentines,
whose staff bore the arms and wore the liveries of
the Duke of Calabria, as though he were still
their ruler. This was considered the most delicate
compliment they could possibly have paid to his
memory.

The Neapolitan nobility vied with the princes
and members of the royal family in the splendour
of their costumes in an age when extravagance in
dress was carried to an extent never since surpassed
either in costliness of material, brilliancy of colour,
or absurdity in fashion. In all these particulars
the men equalled, if they did not surpass, the
women. Among other ridiculous fashions affected

Joanna's Childhood 27

by the younger men were their parti-coloured
clothing, one leg being clad in blue velvet and
the other in pink knee-breeches and silk stockings,
or else one in green and the other in red brocaded
damask, or cloth-of-gold, while their shoes had
long points turned up at the toe and fastened to
the knee with a gold or silver chain. Men of
fashion all wore long hair hanging in ringlets over
their shoulders. The old men had long beards and
long, flowing robes like Orientals.

For a long time after this great function Floren-
tine, Roman, Venetian, Sienese, and other Italian
ladies endeavoured to follow at their weddings,
on a mitigated scale, the fashions set at Joanna's,
which seems to have been the subject of court-
gossip all over Europe.

The infant-bride was resplendent in gold and
pearls and other jewels ; and little did Robert think,
as the two children — who, we are told, were delighted
with all this fuss and splendour — knelt before him
for his blessing, that they were both doomed to be
the subjects of violent and tragical deaths.

At the end of October in this same year Can-
robert went back to Hungary, leaving behind him
a suite of Hungarians, with one Nicholas at their
head as the governor of Andrew — who, by the way,
was a mere nonentity — and one Friar Robert, in
whom was vested all authority over the young prince,
as his tutor.

28 The Beautiful Queen

This is another instance of a member of a religious
order being chosen as tutor to a prince. Unfor-
tunately Friar Robert, upon whom Italian historians
heap every kind of abuse — and even Petrarch can
hardly speak of him without animosity — was not
only unsuitable for the office, but by his ambition
was, to a large extent, responsible for the tragedy
that followed. He was a Franciscan friar, and
was evidently highly obnoxious to the Neapolitans,
but whether he was really such a sink of iniquity
as he is described by his contemporaries to have
been may be doubted.

He lived in an age when neglect of bodily cleanli-
ness was considered a great mark of holiness, as
it certainly is the greatest of all the bodily morti-
fications practised by the saints, and there is no
doubt Friar Robert, from all accounts, gave con-
vincing proofs of one meaning, and that not the
highest, attached to the " odour of sanctity." This
is" attributed to him as hypocrisy, and Petrarch calls
him "worse than a serpent," who is said to have
concealed under his dirty habit vice and cruelty ;
he is also accused of having wilfully brought up
Andrew in ignorance, in order to gain a pernicious
influence over his mind. This may or may not
be true. Andrew was apparendy so stupid, if
not actually imbecile, that Friar Robert may have
found it impossible to impart any knowledge to
him.

Joanna's Childhood 29

He certainly hated the Neapolitans as much as
they hated him, and he tried all he could to exalt
his pupil at the expense of Joanna, and the
Hungarians at the cost of the Neapolitans, but he
did not appear in his true character until after the
death of King Robert.

About a month after Joanna's marriage the city
of Florence was nearly destroyed by a most dis-
astrous flood, which Villani, the historian, and some
of the Florentines themselves, looked upon as a
judgment from Heaven for their sins. King
Robert shared this opinion, and in a long Latin
letter, which he as chief of the Guelphs wrote to
the citizens on this occasion, he exhorts them to
repentance.

The view that it was a chastisement was
strengthened by a vision seen on the night of the
deluge by a hermit who lived above the monastery
of Vallombrosa. He heard a terrific noise as he was
praying, and, going to the door of his hermitage,
saw a troop of armed horsemen, all black and
terrible in aspect, ride furiously past, who, in
answer to his question as to where they were
going, said they were going, please God, to drown
the city of Florence for its wickedness.

Florence was at this time a very licentious city,
and the scene of frequent bloodshed caused by
encounters between the Guelphs and Ghibellines,
the former of whom espoused the part of the Pope,

30 The Beautiful Queen

the latter the part of the Emperor ; they were also
called the Neri and Bianchi, as the followers of the
Pope's party and the King of Italy's are to this day
in Rome.

During this century all the Italian republics and
cities were divided between rival factions. In Rome
the constant battles between the adherents of the
Colonnas and the Orsini, and the absence of the
controlling power of a residential Pope, made the
Eternal City a prey to murder, assassination, and
rapine, and unsafe to live in, for even the churches
were in ruins.

No incident of importance happened in Joanna's
life for five or six years after her early marriage.
The child made such progress in her studies, and
had such excellent abilities, that by the time she
was twelve years old Costanzo and other writers
say of her " that she already surpassed in under-
standing not only every child of her age, but many
women of mature years." Moreover, by her
generous and affectionate disposition and charming
manners, she endeared herself to all around her.
She was most obedient to Robert, whose heart was
torn with remorse when he saw his beautiful grand-
child growing daily more accomplished and more
fit to fill the high dignity in store for her, while,
on the other hand, her semi-idiotic consort learned
nothing from his Hungarian teachers except their
unpolished manners and the hatred they felt for the

Joanna's Childhood 31

Neapolitans, with which Friar Robert endeavoured
to inspire him.

As the children grew up, the contrast became
more striking between the beautiful Joanna and
the unfortunate and boorish Andrew, who,
Petrarch says, was " from all eternity ugly and
contemptible."

Joanna, as she entered her girlhood, is said to have
been saddened at the terrible prospect of spending her
life yoked to so uncongenial a companion, especially
when she saw herself surrounded by many handsome,
brave, and attractive princes, her constant com-
panions, who paid her homage, worshipped at her
shrine, and would gladly have died for her, who
was one of the richest heiresses of her time, and
endowed with extraordinary beauty as well as with
such exceptional talents.

Robert dimly foresaw some of the temptations
to which his own want of discretion would expose
his grandchild, and when Pope John XXII. died,
and was succeeded in 1334 by Benedict XII., he
might have obtained a dispensation from the new
Pope to annul this infantine marriage, on the ground
of Andrew's unfitness ; but, instead of doing this,
he contented himself with calling a general assembly
of the nation, at which he caused the oaths of
allegiance to be taken to Joanna alone. This step
excluded Andrew, or rather his ambitious and
barbarian followers, from any share in the govern-

3 2 The Beautiful Queen

ment of the kingdom, and all Robert's Italian
subjects joyfully took the oath of exclusive allegiance
to the popular Joanna.

Apart from all national jealousy, the Neapolitans
hated the Hungarians on account of their drunken-
ness and other low, coarse vices, and insolent,
barbarian manners. The Neapolitans were them-
selves by no means immaculate- — and indeed in the
matter of licentiousness there was not much to
choose between them and the Hungarians. But the
Neapolitans were sober and polished and refined in
manner, and of the careless, happy, joyous disposi-
tion which still characterises them ; while the Hun-
garians, in spite of their boorish inferiority, were
haughty and ambitious, and impudently aimed at gain-
ing the ascendency in the kingdom for themselves.

By this oath the political union between Andrew
and Joanna was dissolved, but their marriage con-
tract was still unfortunately religiously and civilly
binding, in spite of their youth when it was made.

King Robert, however, was to a great extent
absorbed in his books, for he remained a scholar to
the end of his days, and during the last year or two of
his life was much taken up with Petrarch, whom he
succeeded in getting crowned with laurels at Rome,
and induced to pay his first visit to the court of Naples,
the year before Robert died — to see, as the poet said,
" the only King who could judge of anything more
important than a ragout or a flight of birds."

CHAPTER HI
Petrarch's First Visit to Naples

ONE of Joanna's many claims to fame is, she
was the friend of Petrarch and Boccaccio, the
two greatest geniuses of her time, both of whom
have eulogised her in enthusiastic terms in their
immortal writings. She was only thirteen when
Petrarch paid his first visit to the court of Naples,
in 1 341, to submit his writings to the learned
King Robert for examination before he accepted
the crown of laurel, although he was already so
famous that this examination was unnecessary.

Francis Petrarch was now thirty-seven, and so
strikingly handsome and of so fine a presence that
wherever he went he attracted attention, and he
was an ornament to any court. He was tall and
very manly in appearance, with fine features and
eyes full of fire ; he had a clear, ruddy complexion
and a countenance that betrayed the genius and
imaginative power which distinguished his writings.
A highly accomplished scholar, he was a philosopher

33 3

34 The Beautiful Queen

and a theologian as well as a poet of the first water ;
but he was more and higher than all this, as the
following words of his will show.

" I love truth," he says, " and not sects. I am
something of a Peripatetic, a Stoic, or an Academician,
and often none of them, but always a Christian.
To philosophise is to love wisdom : and the true
wisdom is Jesus Christ. Let us read the historians,
the poets, and the philosophers, but let us have
in our hearts the gospel of Jesus Christ, in which
alone is perfect wisdom and perfect happiness."

He was the intimate friend of Cardinal James
Colonna, who was one of his greatest patrons, and
introduced him to his family, the noblest and most
prominent in Rome. After leaving the university
of Bologna, Petrarch had spent a year in Avignon,
and amid all the beauties of the magnificent and
brilliant court there had remained heart-whole : in
his own words, he was " free and wild as an untamed
stag," though of a most passionate nature. But
before he left Avignon he was destined to meet his
fate.

On Palm Sunday, 1327, he went to Mass in the
monastery of St. Clare, and for the first time saw
Laura, dressed in a green robe embroidered with
violets. Her wondrous beauty, as we learn from
the Sonnets of Petrarch, at once captured the poet's
heart, and she became the idol of his adoration
and the inspiration of his verse. But alas ! she

From a print by Raffadle Morghen, after a picture by Tofanellu

PETRARCH.
P- 34]

Petrarch's First Visit to Naples 35

was already the wife of another. Possessed of a
handsome dowry, her mother had married her when
very young to one Hugh de Sades, who held a
high position in Avignon, Laura's native city.

She was an honourable woman, a faithful wife,
and neither an allegorical myth nor the mistress
of Petrarch, as some romancers have said in an
age when calumny was rife. Equally false was
another report, that Urban V. had granted Petrarch,
who was in holy orders, a dispensation to marry
Laura and that Petrarch had refused it, saying
" the conjugal tie would sully his affection."
Urban V. did not come to the throne till after the
death of Laura.

Laura, on discovering the poet's passion for her,
treated him with chaste severity, avoiding him if
they met by accident, and when forced to meet
him in any public place or social gathering she
wore a veil, against the use of which he laments
in one of his sonnets. She also terrified him by
the austerity of her expression.

When he went to Naples Petrarch was still under
the spell of Laura's fascinations, and indeed he
desired the honour of the laurel crown more for
her sake than his own. The custom of crowning
a genius with a laurel crown in Rome had been
abandoned for a thousand years, and there was
now a question as to whether Petrarch should
receive this honour in Rome or in Paris ; but he

3 6 The Beautiful Queen

ultimately decided to go to Rome, if Robert, King
of Naples, pronounced him worthy of such an
honour.

The King entertained the poet by showing him
the wonders of his beautiful capital, and especially
by taking him to visit the supposed tomb of Virgil
at the entrance to the Grotto of Posilipo, which
was then darker and narrower even than it is now ;
but it was held so sacred, Virgil having been supposed
to have made it so by incantations, that no robbers
dared to infest it.

Then Robert held a public examination of the
poet, which lasted for five days, during which the
king questioned Petrarch on all kinds of subjects,
scientific and philosophic ; Petrarch lectured on
poetry and history, astonished the King by his
wisdom and learning, and almost converted him to
become in his old age a lover of poetry, which he
had hitherto scorned. At the close of this exami-
nation the King in the presence of the Queen,
Joanna, and all the princes and princesses of the
court, pronounced a sort of panegyric on the genius
of the poet, and declared him worthy of the laurel
crown.

Robert desired that the ceremony of coronation
should take place at Naples, but Petrarch preferred
to be crowned in Rome, where, as he explained to
the King, Virgil, Horace, and so many other poets
had received this honour. Accordingly Petrarch

Petrarch's First Visit to Naples 37

left Naples in the beginning of April for Rome ; but
before he left, Robert took off the robe he was
wearing, and, giving it to him, begged him to wear
it at his coronation.

During his stay in Naples Petrarch read his
"Africa," an epic poem which he was then writing,
to King Robert, who was so pleased with it that
he begged it might be dedicated to him. Petrarch
promised that it should be, and fulfilled this promise
after the King's death. He was crowned in Rome
on April 8th, 1341, wearing the King's robe of
state, and accompanied by twelve young Roman
men clad in scarlet robes and wearing crowns of
flowers on their heads. The ceremony was per-
formed in the Capitol by the Senator of Rome.

Among the learned men Petrarch met at the
court of Naples were John Barrili and Barbatus
Sulmone, whom he compared to Homer and Virgil ;
another celebrated man was the King's librarian,
Paul of Perugia, a friend of our Richard de Bury,
Bishop of Durham, said to have been the wisest
man in England, and the author of a charming little
essay on the " Love of Books." Petrarch had met
de Bury at the court of Avignon, and was on
friendly terms with him. He is said to have
possessed the largest library in Europe. Boccaccio,
with whom Petrarch was destined to become very
intimate on a later visit to Naples, had not yet
written the Decameron, nor won the fame he after-

38 The Beautiful Queen

wards enjoyed, and was at this time living in
obscurity in that city, and through the favour of
Paul of Perugia coming to the palace to visit the
King's library. Here he met the beautiful Maria of
Sicily, Robert's natural daughter, who became to
Boccaccio what Beatrice and Laura were to Dante
and Petrarch.

Maria, who was witty and accomplished as well as
beautiful, had married a Neapolitan nobleman named
d' Aquino, but she was the constant companion of
her father, whether he was at Castel Nuovo or at
one or other of his summer residences, either in the
Bay of Baiae, or Sorrento, or Amain, or some other
lovely spot in that land of beauty.

Three days after Petrarch left Naples Boccaccio
met Maria for the first time, and under precisely
similar circumstances to those under which Petrarch,
who probably told him the story, first met Laura,
namely, in church — and, oddly enough, in the church
of St. Clare in Naples instead of St. Clare's at
Avignon — and meeting, he straightway fell in love
with her. Through Maria he became acquainted
with Joanna, then nearly fourteen, " whose culti-
vated mind," says Guinezelli, " appreciated all his
merit."

It was the fashion at that time for every married
woman of rank to have some celebrated military or
literary man in her train as her lover, and he was
considered as indispensable an appendage as her

Petrarch's First Visit to Naples 39

coronet : if a soldier, he fought for her and wore
her favour on his shield ; if a poet, he dedicated his
poems to her exclusively. How far this devotion
went depended upon the character of the woman ;
in Maria of Sicily's case it is believed to have gone
very far, for in those days Boccaccio had the reputa-
tion of being somewhat lax in his morals. But we
must never forget that calumny was one of the
besetting sins of the age, and all stories of intrigues
require to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt.
Giovanni Boccaccio, who was the natural son of
a Florentine merchant, was born in 1313, and is
believed to have written his first works, " The
Rime," " The Filocolo," a very prolix effusion,
" The Fiammette," etc., under the direct inspira-
tion of Maria, who also suggested the " Decameron,"
on which his claim to immortality rests, for in this
he appears as the maker of Italian prose.

One more most celebrated figure among King
Robert's courtiers we must not omit to mention,
for he is accused by some writers of playing the
assassin's part in the murder of Andrew of Hungary,
that ghastly tragedy which left a stain never yet
effaced on the most brilliant court of the fourteenth
century.

This was Nicholas Acciajuoli, whom Petrarch
called his second Maecenas. He was the son of
one of the very richest merchants of Florence, and
originally came to Naples to negotiate a loan between

4o The Beautiful Queen

his father and the King. He was very good-
looking, highly accomplished, and endowed with
such charming manners that the Princess of Taranto
made him the tutor and governor of her son, Louis
of Taranto, Joanna's second husband, and his
younger brother Philip. Acciajuoli was not only
a conspicuous figure in Robert's court, but also one
of the most important personages in Joanna's reign,
for his influence over Louis was supreme, and the
friendship which grew up between them most
intimate.

In the beginning of January, 1343, Robert felt his
strength was fast failing, and, judging death to be
near, he made his will, dictating it in the presence
of his counsellors. He made Joanna his universal
heiress, not only of the kingdom of Naples, but also
of the counties of Provence and Piedmont. If
Joanna died without issue, her sister Maria was
to succeed, and she was bequeathed a marriage dowry
of 30,000 ounces of gold, with some lands for which
she had to do homage to Joanna. To Andrew,
in case he survived Joanna, he left the principality
of Salerno, for which he was to do homage to the
then reigning King and Queen. According to an
agreement he had made with his nephew Canrobert,
King of Hungary, he left Maria's hand in marriage
to the eldest brother of Andrew, Canrobert's eldest
son Louis, who had just ascended the throne of
Hungary.

Petrarch's First Visit to Naples 41

This marriage, if it ever came off, could only
increase the difficulty of Joanna's succession, because
the elder member of the Neapolitan family was
already married to the younger son of the King
of Hungary, and his elder son was by this will
to be united to the younger sister of Joanna. Robert
the Wise did not display his wisdom in the dis-
position of his two grandchildren. Not content
with marrying Joanna to an idiot, he now proposed
to marry Maria to a semi-barbarian king, who was
destined to become her sister Joanna's deadliest
enemy.

Robert would fain have made his Queen, Sancha,
Regent of the kingdom during the minority of the
young King and Queen, but she refused to accept
the charge, being bent on entering a convent at her
husband's death. He therefore appointed a council
of regency with Sancha at the head of it ; the other
members were Philip of Cabassole, Bishop of
Cavaillon and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Naples,
Philip of Sanguineto, Seneschal of Provence, Geoffrey,
Count of Squilazzo, High Admiral, and Charles
Artus, Grand Chamberlain of the kingdom. Joanna
and Andrew, and also Maria, were not to attain
their majority till they reached the age of twenty-
five, and until that time all their edicts, gifts, and
sales were to be considered null and void without
the consent of the Council.

Finally Robert recommended the Queen, his

4 2 The Beautiful Queen

grandchildren, and his dominions to the protection
of the Pope and the College of Cardinals. The
Pope at this time was Clement VI., who was a good
friend to Joanna after Robert's death. He was a
great Pope, clement by nature as well as by name,
and one of the most profound scholars of his age,
to whom Italian historians have not done justice,
because of his preference for Avignon, where his
court was celebrated for its luxury and magnificence.
As soon as his will was duly sealed and attested,
Robert called Joanna and Andrew to his bedside
and endeavoured to impress upon them the solemn
responsibilities of their position, warning them of
the dangers with which they were surrounded on
all sides, and apparently frightening them, for we
are told they wept so bitterly that he gently re-
proved them for their grief. Three days before his
death, though very weak, he had himself carried to
the church of St. Clare, which he had founded, and
there was invested with the habit of the Third
Order of St. Francis, in which humble garb he died.
He was only sixty-four at the time of his death.
Petrarch says of him : " He died as he had lived,
speaking and acting in the same manner. If Heaven
had positively decreed that he should not prevent
the misfortunes which were to follow his death, it
was the greatest happiness that could have happened
to him, and I believe no man ever died at a more
fortunate moment for himself."

Petrarch's First Visit to Naples 43

With a poet's prescience of coming evil, and with
a keen sense of his own prophetic powers, which the
sequel justified, he wrote to his friend Barbatus
Sulmone, on hearing of the death of Robert, as
follows :

"What I have so much dreaded has happened,
our great King has left us ! What an affliction
for me, my dear Barbatus ! I fear to see his death
followed by the calamities I have predicted. My
mind is but too good a prophet when it announces
sinister events. The youth of the Queen and her
husband, the age of the Queen Dowager, her pro-
jects, the dispositions and manners of the courtiers,
make me fear everything. God grant that I may
be deceived in my sad forebodings ! But I see two
lambs in the midst of wolves, a monarchy without
a monarch — for can we thus term a child in tute-
lage ? " The lambs alluded to were Joanna and
Maria, the wolves Friar Robert and the Hungarians.

Joanna, who was now in her sixteenth year, was
" fair and goodly to look upon," says Boccaccio, who
enlarges at great length on her intellectual gifts and
her generous and fine disposition. Brantome, the
celebrated French chronicler who accompanied Mary
Queen of Scots to Holyrood, says that Joanna's
beauty far exceeded that of Petrarch's Laura.
" Her portrait, which is still to be seen," he writes,
" shows that she was more angelic than human. I
saw it at Naples in a number of places where it is

44 The Beautiful Queen

treasured with the greatest care. I have seen it
also in France, in the cabinet of our kings and
queens and of many of our noble ladies. Certainly
this was a beautiful princess, whose countenance
displayed great sweetness with a beautiful majesty.
She is painted in a magnificent robe of crimson
velvet, loaded with gold and silver lace and em-
broidery. On her head she wears a bonnet on a
cushion. In brief, this fine portrait of this lady
represents her as all beauty, sweetness, and true
majesty so well that one becomes enamoured of
her mere image."

This portrait was taken when the terrible tragedy
of her life had added majesty to the beauty of
youth, the beaute du diable with which at the time
of Robert's death Joanna was sparkling ; but we
find all her admirers speaking of the sweetness and
majesty of her beauty, which was evidently of a
very high type, though unfortunately none of the
portraits of her which have come down to our time
do justice to her.

One of the most beautiful pictures in the world
is said to be a painting of Joanna by Leonardo da
Vinci copied from an old portrait, now in the Doria
Gallery at Rome. From it she would appear to
have been of the fair Italian type, for her eyes
and hair are brown, her hair pale enough to be
called golden : her face is a perfect oval, her fore-
head high, her chin beautifully rounded, her lips

9 ? /

t I.

Petrarch's First Visit to Naples 45

full with a sweet smile playing round them, her
nose slightly aquiline with delicately formed nostrils,
and her eyes large, soft, and full. Joanna's beauty
and intellectual gifts only made her boy husband's
deficiencies the more striking, and it is no wonder
that one of Robert's dying regrets was having
made such a sacrifice of the future Queen's happi-
ness to political expediency.

He saw the two children grow up under his
eyes, Joanna taking part in all the amusements of
the court, and delighting him with her intelligence,
entering into his love of learning, and developing
her natural gifts of wit and eloquence, for which
she was afterwards so famed ; while Andrew re-
mained ignorant and loutish, interesting himself in
nothing except eating and drinking, in which he
took too much pleasure.

The principal amusements of the Neapolitan Court
in the fourteenth century were music and singing,
and telling thrilling tales of love and adventure, in
which art both men and women excelled. Cards
were not introduced until the end of the century,
when they were invented in Paris. Chess and
backgammon were much played.

The dancing was slow and stately, and the so-
called ballade was the favourite Italian dance ; this
was a dance accompanied by a chant, the dance
illustrating the subject of the words sung. At
great festivals, not only the King and Queen engaged

46 The Beautiful Queen

in these solemn dances, but likewise legates, prelates,
and even cardinals.

The fashionable drive round the Mole of Naples,
in which Joanna and the other young princes and
princesses daily took part, to the delight of the
people, was also very slow and impressive, though
the cavalcade of horses and chariots, princes and
princesses, knights, courtiers, and ladies-in-waiting
was magnificent.

The troubadours were a conspicuous feature at
Robert's court, for the Counts of Provence and
Toulouse had always been the chief patrons of
these Provencal court-poets, and singers of war
and love and adventure ; they were one of the
typical romantic figures of French and Spanish
and Italian courts, from the beginning of the twelfth
to the end of the fourteenth century.

Entertainment was also provided by the court-
jugglers and tumblers, who came into the banquet-
ing-hall between the courses, at the entremets, to per-
form various feats of jugglery. At public banquets,
pageants, mock-battles, and various other scenes were
represented during these interludes, for the amuse-
ment of the guests, and perhaps also to give them
time to get up an appetite for the next course.

These banquets lasted an interminable time, and
the tables groaned under the weight of the dishes,
which consisted among other things of peacocks,
cranes, venison, sturgeon, herons, seal, porpoises,

Petrarch's First Visit to Naples 47

and roast swan, besides various kinds of meat, cut
up into small pieces before brought to table, which
in England were called gobbets, and were conveyed
to the mouth by the fingers as a rule, although
spoons were then in use, but forks did not
become general until the middle of the sixteenth
century.

An amusing incident is recorded of the introduc-
tion of forks into Europe. The first of these now
indispensable table-appointments is said to have
been a golden prong brought by a Byzantine
princess to Venice, when she came there as a bride
in the eleventh century. St. Peter Damien, then
Bishop of Ostia, hearing of what he deemed such
extravagant luxury, preached a sermon in which
he denounced her for her wicked extravagance in
conveying her food to her mouth with a golden
prong, instead of using her fingers, which Almighty
God had given her for that very purpose ! " Autres
temps, autres mceurs." The preacher who inveighs
to-day against the wicked speed of motor-cars and the
presumption of airships will probably strike our
descendants as quite as fanatical and uncivilised as
St. Peter Damien appears to us of the twentieth
century.

In the outdoor sports of hawking, fishing, and
hunting, in which men then delighted, Italian ladies
took no part, and in tournaments they were only
spectators of the achievements of the knights.

CHAPTER IV
The Lamb among Wolves

JOANNA and Andrew were proclaimed Queen
and King as soon as King Robert's funeral
was over. The Neapolitans received Joanna with
the greatest joy, and ambassadors from all the Italian
courts visited her, to condole with her on her
grandfather's death and to congratulate her on her
accession, and she received them all with grace and
befitting dignity.

For a brief period only the Council of Regency
was permitted to govern, and during this time
Joanna possessed influence over them, and astonished
them by her wisdom and prudence. She and the
Dowager Queen Sancha took the first opportunity
of promoting their favourite, Philippa the Catanese,
and her family to higher dignities than they enjoyed
in the reign of the late King.

Philippa was still Joanna's governess ; she was now

made Countess of Montoni. Her granddaughter

4 8

The Lamb among Wolves 49

Sancha, the Dowager Queen's godchild, was married
to the Count of Murzano ; Philippa's son, the Count
of Evoli, was made seneschal of the kingdom, a rank,
inferior only to that of the Sovereign : by virtue
of this appointment he became one of the seven
great officers of the Crown. Philippa was now at
the zenith of her prosperity, little irking of the
terrible fate in store for her. But let us not antici-
pate evils, where an armed band of troubles was
close at hand.

That " serpent," as Petrarch calls him, Friar
Robert, began immediately to appear in his true
character. He prompted his pupil Andrew to
declare the crown of Naples was not Joanna's dowry,
but his by right, and no sooner was the proclamation
of the new King and Queen pronounced than he
demanded admission to the Council of Regency
for himself and for Nicholas the Hungarian, the
governor of Andrew. Unfortunately the Council,
after some hesitation, made the fatal mistake of
admitting them, thereby compassing the very evil
the late King had endeavoured to ward off" from the
kingdom, to which end all his measures for many
years had been directed. Not content with this
first successful move, Friar Robert went on to obtain
places of trust and influence for the Hungarians,
intending ultimately to seize the reins of government
for himself.

Pope Clement VI. then interfered, partially can-

4

5° The Beautiful Queen

celling the Regency appointed by King Robert, and
nominating a legate to govern in its place ; whereupon
the most ambitious among the Neapolitan nobles
seized the opportunity to promote their own ends,
and refused to obey either the legate or the Regency,
playing off one against the other. Meanwhile Friar
Robert's hypocrisy imposed upon the people, who,
judging his external poverty, as shown in his dirty
habit and slovenly appearance, to be a sign of
supernatural sanctity, were ready to obey and support
him. He won the more mercenary nobles over by
promises of promotion, and soon found himself at
the head of a party powerful enough to defy the
Pope himself.

He treated both Joanna and the Queen Dowager
with the greatest insolence, and claimed everything
in the right of Andrew alone, making Joanna
practically a State prisoner, while the Hungarians
pressed themselves everywhere, to the exclusion of
the Neapolitan princes and nobles.

The princes of the blood, banished from court
by the haughtiness of the Hungarians, retired to
their own castles, leaving Joanna to the mercy of
these barbarians — the lamb among wolves, as Petrarch
so aptly called her. The lamb, however, was not
altogether unprotected. Philippa was with her, and,
for the first year after King Robert's death, the
Dowager Queen remained at Castel Nuovo, where
Joanna and Maria resided with her.

The Lamb among Wolves 51

The Princess of Taranto also continued to live in
Naples with her daughters, whilst her eldest son
Robert was absent fighting for her real or supposed
rights as the titular Empress of Constantinople.
This princess, seeing that Andrew was a mere tool
in Friar Robert's hands, and utterly incapable of
appreciating either Joanna's beauty or her talents, or
of doing anything except eat and drink, began, it is
said, to plan a marriage with Joanna and her second
son, Louis, trusting, if she succeeded in winning
Joanna's affection for Louis, to persuade the Pope to
annul her marriage with Andrew.

There seems no doubt that the Princess of
Taranto did try to divert the young Queen's
affections from her boorish, idiotic husband to her
own handsome, learned, brave, and attractive son,
and in all probability it is equally true that Philippa
the Catanese aided and abetted her in this to the
best of her power ; but that Nicholas Acciajuoli
joined in this vile conspiracy to tempt Joanna to be
unfaithful to her first husband, as some historians
assert, is believed by Costanzo, whom we are
following, to be a libel on so upright and honourable
a man. Acciajuoli owed everything to Robert, and
common gratitude to the late King would prevent
him from joining in a plot to compromise Joanna's
honour, in days when the marriage-tie was not so
easily broken as now.

Louis, as the sequel will show, was by no means

5 2 The Beautiful Queen

so blind to his cousin's charms as was her husband
Andrew, but there is not a scrap of evidence to
show that the young Queen at this time had
any but a cousinly affection for Louis ; on the
contrary, she was so watched and guarded by the
Hungarians, that had she shown any preference for
Louis, Friar Robert and his creatures would have
been only too glad to seize upon any pretext to get
rid of her and secure the throne for Andrew alone.
Joanna was too fond of her grandfather, to whose
commands and wishes, both before and after his
death, she showed implicit obedience, and too
innocent, to think of such a thing as abandoning
her lawful husband for another more attractive
one.

In the October following Robert's death Petrarch
again visited Naples for two purposes. He was
deputed by the Pope to assert his right to ad-
minister the government of the kingdom during
the minority of the King and Queen, and further
charged by his friend and protector, Cardinal
Colonna, to obtain the release from perpetual im-
prisonment of the Pipini brothers, the Counts of
Minervino, Lucera, and Potenza. They had been
sentenced to life-long imprisonment in the castle of
Capua by King Robert, for besieging Count Marra in
his casde of that name. The Pipini were friends of
the Colonna family, whom they assisted in their
quarrels with the Orsini, their hereditary enemies,

The Lamb among Wolves 53

and the municipal authorities of Rome. Soon after
his arrival in Naples, Petrarch wrote to Cardinal
Colonna, and in his letter gives such a graphic
description of Naples that we cannot do better than
quote parts of it, for Petrarch was a very effusive
correspondent, and his epistle is too long to be
quoted in full.

He says : " Immediately on my arrival in Naples
I visited the two Queens, and went to treat with
the council on the subject of my coming. But oh
infamy of the world, what a monster ! May Heaven
rid the soil of Italy of such a pest. ... I mourn
for thee, Naples, my beloved ! that thou art
rendered like to one of these Saracens — no pity,
no truth, no faith, a horrible animal, with bald head
and bare feet, short in stature, swoln in person, with
worn-out rags torn studiously to show his naked
skin, who not only despises the supplications of
thy citizens, but from the vantage ground of his
feigned sanctity treats with scorn the embassy of
the Pope. Yet this is not marvellous, because his
pride is founded upon the treasures he accumulates,
for from what is reported it appears that his caskets
full of gold do not accord with the rags he wears.
Perhaps you would know his name : he is called
Robert, succeeding, in this place, to that Robert
lately dead who was as much the honour of our
age as this is its eternal infamy."

Having enlarged on this theme, he continues

54 The Beautiful Queen

further on : " He wears nor crown nor brocade nor
silk, but with a squalid mantle, filthy and torn, which
covers but half his swollen body, and with a crouch-
ing gait, bent not by age, but by hypocrisy, he rules
with unutterable arrogance and tyranny the courts
of both Queens, oppresses the weak, treads justice
under foot, confounds all things human and divine,
and like a new Palinurus or Tiphys * sits at the head
of this great vessel, which from what I can discern
will quickly go to the bottom, as all the mariners
are like himself, except the Bishop of Cavaillon, who
as much as he can takes the side of justice, abandoned
by all the others."

He goes on to tell the Cardinal to relate these
things to the Pope, and to add that the Apostolic
embassy would have been received with more
reverence by the Saracens than it was in Naples.
He also says he has been three or four times
to visit the Capuan prisoners, who place all their
hope of release in the Cardinal. The old Queen
has great pity on them, but can do nothing to help
them, as Friar Robert was determined to keep them
in prison ; Joanna and Andrew might have mercy
on them, if Friar Robert and Nicholas, the governor
of the King, would permit them.

If Friar Robert had never done anything worse
than refuse to release these turbulent Pipini, we
should not have much to say against him, for they
1 Palinurus and Tiphys were pilots

The Lamb among Wolves 55

were not worthy of the interest Cardinal Colonna
took in them ; and their subsequent release, which
Petrarch persuaded Andrew to grant, only hastened
the catastrophe which was impending on this un-
happy King.

Petrarch had many opportunities of conversing
with Joanna during this visit, and was struck
with her talents and learning. She would fain
have attached him to her court ; but as at that
time she was a Queen in name only, without
power to do good to any one, as she pathetically
said of herself, this was impossible ; but she was
able to appoint him her domestic chaplain and
almoner, an office only bestowed upon people of
distinction.

Shortly before coming to Naples for the second
time, Petrarch had received further preferment from
Pope Clement VI., who made him Archdeacon of
Parma, and at the end of 1342 conferred upon him
the Priory of St. Nicholas, Pisa.

The deed by which Joanna appointed the poet
her domestic chaplain was signed on the day of
a most terrific tempest, which occurred while
Petrarch was in Naples, and is described by him
with his usual eloquence. This storm was caused
by a violent sirocco, and was felt on all the shores
of the Mediterranean, but spent its worst fury
on Naples. It was predicted a few days before
by the bishop of one of the neighbouring islands,

5 6 The Beautiful Queen

as a scourge from God ; he also prophesied that
the city would be destroyed by an earthquake on
November 25th, when the storm actually happened.

Happily this second part of the prophesy was
not fulfilled, but it spread such terror through
the city that the inhabitants prepared for death,
leaving their business unattended to, and when
the first signs of the storm broke women rushed
half-clothed, with their babies in their arms, to the
churches, where they prostrated themselves on
the floor praying for mercy.

Petrarch, who confesses he was frightened by
the general consternation, went to spend the night
in the monastery of St. Laurence, where he went
to bed shortly before midnight, the monks having
retired at their usual hour.

" Scarce had I closed my eyes," he says in a
letter he wrote the day after the earthquake, " when
I was awakened by the loud rattling of my chamber-
windows. I felt the walls of the convent violently
shaken from their foundations. The lamp which
I always keep lighted through the night was ex-
tinguished. The fear of death had fast hold of me.

"The whole city was in commotion, and you
heard nothing but lamentations and confused ex-
hortations to make ready for the dreadful event.
The monks, who had risen for Matins, terrified
by the movements of the earth, ran into my chamber
armed with crosses and relics, imploring the mercy

The Lamb among Wolves 57

of Heaven. A prior whose name was David, and
who was considered a saint, was at their head. We
proceeded to the church, which was already crowded,
and here we remained during the rest of the night,
expecting every moment the completion of the
prophesy.

"We all threw ourselves on the ground, and
implored aloud the mercy of Heaven, expecting
from time to time that the church would fall
upon us.

" It is impossible to describe the horrors of
that infernal night. The elements were let loose.
The noise of the thunder, the winds, and the
rain, the roarings of the enraged sea, the con-
vulsions of the heaving earth, and the distracted
cries of those who felt themselves staggering on
the brink of death, were dreadful beyond imagina-
tion. Never was there such a night. As soon
as we apprehended that day was at hand, the altars
were prepared, and the priests vested themselves
for Mass. Trembling we lifted up our eyes to
Heaven, and then fell prostrate upon the earth.

" The day at length appeared. But what a day !
Its horrors were worse than those of the night.
No sooner were the higher parts of the city a
little more calm, than we were struck with the
outcries which we heard from the sea. Anxious
to discover what was passing there, and still ex-
pecting nothing but death, we became desperate,

5 8 The Beautiful Queen

and instantly mounting our horses we rode down
to the shore.

" Heaven ! What a sight ! Vessels wrecked
in the harbour ; the strand covered with bodies,
which had been dashed against the rocks, and
appeared like so many eggs which had been
broken in pieces. Nor were the shrieks of the
men and women who inhabited the falling houses
close to the sea less terrible than the roaring of
the sea itself. Where the day before we had gone
to and fro on the dusty path was now a sea more
dangerous than the Straits of Messina. You could
not pass in the streets without the risk of being
drowned.

tf More than a thousand Neapolitan knights came
from all sides to the spot where we were, as if to
assist in the funeral obsequies of their country.
This splendid troop gave me a little courage. 'If
I die,' I said to myself, c I shall still be in good
company.'

" Scarce had I made this reflection whan I heard
a dreadful clamour everywhere around me. The
sea had sapped the foundations of the place where
we were standing, and it was at this instant giving
way. We fled therefore immediately to more
elevated ground. Here we beheld a most tre-
mendous sight. The sea between Naples and
Capri was covered with moving mountains ; they
were neither green as in the ordinary state of

The Lamb among Wolves 59

the ocean, nor black as in common storms, but
white.

" The young Queen rushed out of the palace
barefooted, her hair dishevelled, and her dress in
the greatest disorder. She was followed by a train
of females, whose dress was as loose and disorderly
as her own. They went to throw themselves at
the feet of the Blessed Virgin, crying aloud, ' Mercy !
Mercy ! ' and visited in turn all the churches of the
Mother of God in the city.

" Towards the close of the day the storm abated,
the sea was calm and the sky serene. Those who
were upon land suffered now only the pains of fear,
but it was otherwise with those upon the water.
Some galleys from Marseilles and Cyprus were sunk
before our eyes, nor could we give them the least
assistance. Larger vessels from other nations met
with the same fate, in the midst of the harbour.
Not a soul was saved except one galley of four
hundred criminals, under sentence of death, who
had been reserved as a forlorn hope, to be exposed
in the first expedition against Sicily. They were a
hardy set of men, and struggled with the storm,
and when the ship began to sink ran aloft and clung
to the rigging. At this moment the tempest was
appeased, and these poor convicts were the only
ones whose lives were saved in the port of Naples.
Lucan says, 'Fortune preserves the guilty.'" x

1 "Life of Petrarch," by Mrs. Dodson (London, 1805).

60 The Beautiful Queen

This graphic description of the terrible scene, we
may take it, does not in any way underestimate the
horrors of this historical storm and earthquake, for
Petrarch's style was picturesque ; and at any rate both
he and Joanna recovered sufficiently from their terror
to sign the document making him her chaplain the
same day, for it bears the date of November 25 th,
1343. Petrarch concludes his letter by vowing
that nothing shall ever make him risk his life on the
sea after witnessing the destruction of that storm.
" I will leave the air to the birds, and the sea to the
fish, for I am a land animal, and to the land will I
confine myself. I know very well the divines insist
there is as much danger by land as by sea. It may
be so. But I beseech you to permit me there to
give up my life where I first received it. I like that
saying of one of the ancients, ' He who is ship-
wrecked a second time cannot lay the fault upon
Neptune.' " x

The state of Rome at this time was in the
utmost disorder, for the quarrels of the! barons
and the insurrections of the populace made the
Eternal City a constant scene of bloodshed. Naples,
according to Petrarch, was not much better ; for in
another letter which he wrote on this visit he says
the streets at night "are filled by young men of rank
who are armed and attack all who pass, without
distinction — they must fight or die. This evil is
" Life of Petrarch," by Mrs. Dodson (London, 1805).

The Lamb among Wolves 61

without remedy ; neither the authority of parents,
the severity of the magistrates, nor the power of
kings has been able to suppress it. But it is not
surprising that such actions are committed by night,
when they kill each other for diversion in open day."

Here Petrarch is alluding to combats resembling
those of gladiators, which were at this time the
favourite amusement of both sexes and all ranks
in Naples. They took place in a part called the
Carbonaria, amid the most brilliant and magnificent
assemblage of nobility in Europe. Petrarch was
induced to go to one of these entertainments, at
which the young King and Queen were present ;
but he left in disgust after seeing a young nobleman
expire at his feet, whereupon he put spurs to his
horse and fled.

He used all his eloquence to try to disgust the
Neapolitan nobles with these barbarous tournaments,
but in vain ; they would not be persuaded to give
them up.

It was during this visit of Petrarch to Naples
that Joanna, for her own amusement and that of her
courtiers, established her " Court of Love," or
" Parliament of Love," as these courts were called.
They settled difficult questions on subjects connected
with love and marriage, composed by their arbitration
the quarrels of lovers, and awarded prizes to poets
and other writers.

Joanna was chosen as President of the Court of

62 The Beautiful Queen

Love, which was organised this year for her birthday-
feast, and a story is told in connection with it which
throws a light on the relations of Andrew and
Joanna. It seems that when Joanna took her seat
under the canopy erected for her, there was another
empty seat a little below hers, and Andrew tried to
take it, but the young Queen waved him away from
it, saying :

" Fair sir ! I reign here alone ; you cannot share
my authority."

Andrew retired in a fury, and Petrarch unrebuked
took the seat.

During the banquet it was the custom for
presents to be brought in, and Joanna gave them
to whom she pleased. These gifts were of various
kinds — armour, hounds, falcons, jewellery, etc.
On this occasion Joanna gave Louis of Taranto
a steel mask for his face, and sent a falcon to
Andrew, who angrily refused it.

" Take the bird to your mistress, and let her give
it to whom she likes. I accept no constrained
courtesy," he said.

Joanna, who saw Andrew's action if she did not
actually hear his rude words — which in justice to him
must be allowed to have had some provocation — was
as angry as Andrew had been when she waved him
away from the seat by her side, but said nothing.

Presently seeing her displeasure, Nicholas the
Hungarian, Andrew's tutor, made some excuse for

The Lamb among Wolves 63

the young King, but Joanna angrily and haughtily
told him that it was his evil counsels which had
prompted Andrew's insult.

This glimpse at this Court of Love gives a
better idea of the relations which existed between
Joanna and her boorish husband than could be
conveyed by pages which might be written upon the
subject. The little scene is so natural : first Joanna
smilingly waving the young King, who was seldom
sober, away from the seat of honour to which he
aspired ; his subsequent sulky refusal of her gift
given according to custom, and her girlish anger
and pique at his rudeness ; finally her royal rebuke
of the Hungarian tutor, who was the cause of much
of the friction between the young King and Queen.

Petrarch remained in Naples until the end of
December, and before he left, Andrew went himself
to the Castle of Capua, and by his own authority
set free the Pipini brothers. This is the only act
of vigour he ever performed, but he was probably
prompted to it by Friar Robert, who wanted to
attach these dangerous men to his party. Andrew
acted apparently in this instance from compassion,
and then took a great fancy to the three liberated
prisoners, whom he could not bear out of his sight,
and made great friends of them. The Pipini soon
began to presume on his favour, and grew more
violent and overbearing than before their imprison-
ment, and only increased the hatred which the

64 The Beautiful Queen

Neapolitans were beginning to feel for Andrew per-
sonally, dreading as they did the encroachments of
the Hungarians ; moreover, they now feared that the
weakness of his mind would make him the tool of
any one to whom he took a fancy.

While on the one hand the Neapolitans were
dreading the ascendency of the Hungarians and
their party, Friar Robert, who knew that his rule
could only last during the extreme youth of Joanna,
now eighteen, began to fear her great popularity
with the people and the best of the nobility, the
favour which she enjoyed of the Pope, and her
superior abilities. To counteract all this, the wily
friar wrote to Louis of Hungary, Andrew's eldest
brother, begging him to come to Naples and marry
the Queen's sister Maria, according to the testament
of Robert, and to seize on the kingdom itself in his
own right, as the heir of his grandfather, Charles
Martel. Louis of Hungary was only too ready to
fall in with these plans, but they were met by a
counter-plot of the house of Durazzo, as we shall
see directly.

The Dowager Queen Sancha remained only a year
in the world after her husband's death, and about
the first anniversary of it entered the convent of
Poor Clares in Naples, which she had herself founded
some years before. Sancha had always, as we have
said before, hankered after the religious life, and
now seized the first opportunity of retiring from a

The Lamb among Wolves 65

world she despised, to join the strictest Order in
the Catholic Church and exchange the luxury of the
most refined court in Europe for the coarse habit,
and inclined board as a bed, of the Poor Clares.
It turned out fortunate for her that she did so,
before the impending tragedy which involved the
ruin of so many.

Petrarch's epitaph on King Robert may fitly close
this chapter. " Here lies the body of King Robert.
His soul is in heaven. He was the glory of
kings, the honour of his age, the chief of warriors,
and the best of men. Skilful in the art of war, he
loved peace. . . . His genius equalled his valour,
he unravelled the holy mysteries, he read the events
of Heaven. The Muses and the Arts mourn their
protector. All the virtues lie buried in his tomb.
No one can praise him as he deserves, but Fame
shall make him immortal."

CHAPTER V
Plots and Counterplots

' I "HE Durazzos, it will be remembered, were the
-*■ youngest branch of the Angevine family. King
Robert's youngest brother, the Duke of Durazzo,
had married Maria of Perigord, the sister of Cardinal
Talleyrand — a name that became celebrated through
the distinguished diplomatist who lived four hundred
years later.

The Duchess of Durazzo was a widow at the
time of King Robert's death. She was living in
Naples with her three sons, Charles, Louis, and
Robert, and her daughters, all of whom were well-
known members of the Neapolitan Court. Charles
was a handsome man and a brave soldier, but un-
scrupulous and ambitious, and report said was very
fond of his cousin Joanna, and certainly quite alive
to the advantages of a marriage with her sister,
Maria of Sicily, whom King Robert had assigned by
his will to Louis of Hungary.

As soon as Maria was of marriageable age, the

66

Plots and Counter-plots 67

Duchess of Durazzo set to work to win her affections
for her son Charles, just as the widowed Princess of
Taranto was endeavouring to estrange Joanna's
affections from her husband Andrew in favour of
her son Louis, but with this difference — that Maria
was only betrothed to Louis of Hungary, while
Joanna was actually the wife of Andrew.

The Duchess persuaded her brother, Cardinal
Talleyrand, to induce Pope Clement VI. to grant
Maria a dispensation to enable her to marry the
Duke of Durazzo, who was her first cousin, once
removed. Clement, who was always only too ready
to oblige his friends, consented without in this case
considering what the consequences would be of this
marriage of the heir-apparent to the Neapolitan
throne. Had he given it more thought, he would
have seen that it not only threatened Joanna's in-
terests, but might also prove dangerous to her crown.

Maria was living at Castel Nuovo with the Queen
Regnant, and the Dowager Queen Sancha, who had
not yet entered the monastery of Poor Clares ; and
the Duchess visited her constantly, and, having
succeeded in setting Maria against the Hungarians,
was soon able to persuade her to give up Louis of
Hungary, whom she had not seen, for the Duke
of Durazzo, whom she knew well. She then made
all the necessary arrangements for the marriage :
she seems to have had a genius for intrigue, and
to have planned everything very cleverly, for she

68 The Beautiful Queen

managed to get Maria out of the palace and
married to Charles before the child (for she was
only fifteen) was missed.

When it was discovered one fine day that the
heir-apparent to the throne had been abducted and
married to the Duke of Durazzo, thereby setting
her grandfather's will at defiance, there was great
consternation in the palace. The two Queens,
Joanna and Sancha, were furiously angry, for Joanna,
though so young, was old enough and wise enough
to see what dangerous consequences might result to
herself from it ; for Louis of Hungary was not likely
to submit quietly to being thus cheated of his bride,
and would probably revenge himself by invading
Joanna's kingdom. Moreover, the fact that the
Duke of Durazzo's grandmother was a princess of
Hungary increased the danger to Joanna's throne,
as the Hungarians were only too ready to dispute
her right to it; and from their point of view, this
gave the Duke some claim to it himself, and was
what he was aiming at secretly.

It was immediately after this elopement that the
Queen Sancha retired to her convent, leaving Joanna
under the care of Philippa the Catanese. She took
the habit, and died before she had been more than
a year in the monastery, being probably too old to
stand the austerity of the rule : she was thus happily
spared the knowledge of the terrible tragedy which
was impending and its consequences.

Plots and Counterplots 69

Angry as Joanna was with Maria and Durazzo,
she soon forgave them both, and was reconciled
to them, perhaps feeling the need of her sister's
society and sympathy in the midst of her own
difficulties and troubles, surrounded as she was by
Friar Robert's boorish and ambitious Hungarians.

Meanwhile the Princess of Taranto and Philippa
seem to have been pursuing their infamous design
of trying to undermine Joanna's loyalty to her
young husband, trusting that as the Pope had been
so accommodating in Maria's case as to give her the
necessary dispensation to marry Durazzo, he would
be equally obliging in Joanna's, and pronounce her
marriage null and void. Whether Joanna was aware
of these designs we cannot tell at this distance of
time and among so many conflicting reports. She
must have known of the daily increasing unpopu-
larity of the Hungarians, and probably shared in
the desire to get rid of the odious Friar Robert,
but there is no evidence to show that she wished
to be separated from Andrew.

In the course of 1344 Clement VI. appointed
Cardinal Americus as his legate, to govern the
kingdom during Joanna's minority ; and on August
28th the beautiful young Queen received the in-
vestiture of the crown from his hands, and took
the oaths according to the customary ceremonies, and
on the same conditions as her predecessors, Andrew
being only a spectator. It was the Cardinal's in-

7° The Beautiful Queen

fluence which achieved this stroke of policy, and he
afterwards did his best to control the authority of
Friar Robert, but he did not succeed very well, for
he was a stranger in Naples, and therefore ignorant
of the most important affairs of State, and all those
who were opposed to his appointment withheld the
necessary information from him.

Friar Robert was, as we have seen, popular among
the lower orders, who believed in his reputed sanctity.
Joanna, seeing everything going to ruin, now wrote
to the Pope and begged him to allow her to govern
for herself, without the interference of either legates
or guardians. Clement, on account of her youth —
for she was not yet seventeen — refused this request ;
and she then wrote another letter to him, begging
him to recall Cardinal Americus, and appoint in
his place Philip de Cabassole, the Bishop of Cavaillon,
whom King Robert had in his will placed at the
head of the Council of Regency with Queen Sancha,
and with his last breath had committed the care of his
kingdom and the charge of his grandchildren to him.

This good bishop, who was afterwards made a
Cardinal and Patriarch of Jerusalem, was also a
friend of Petrarch, who says of him "that he was
a great man with a little bishopric," Cavaillon being
only a small town near Avignon and also near
Vaucluse, where Petrarch frequently retired when
he wished to live in seclusion. Philip was of noble
birth, and had been made a canon at the age of

Plots and Counterplots 71

twelve, according to a mediaeval custom of conferring
these nominal preferments upon boys and youths, long
before they were old enough to be ordained. The
Cabassoles had always been attached to the Angevine
family, who, with their usual generosity to their
dependents and friends, had loaded them with
benefits. The Bishop had remained at Naples after
Robert's death, and had showed his anxiety to do
all he could for the late King's family.

Clement VI. knew this, and, recognising the
reasonableness and wisdom of Joanna's request,
gave his consent immediately, and the result was
some mitigation of the miseries of the people and
of the indignities to which the royal family had
been subjected by the Hungarians.

The tyranny and rapaciousness of these barbarians,
whose object was to wrest the kingdom from Joanna
in favour of the Hungarian family, had so roused
the great barons and the princes of Taranto and
Durazzo that they now determined not to consent
to the coronation of Andrew on any terms. Louis
of Hungary had already tried to obtain a Bull from
Avignon for his coronation in right of his grand-
father, Charles Martel, but the Neapolitans had
refused to take the oaths of allegiance to him,
except as the consort of Joanna, and now they
refused to acknowledge him as king, dreading, as
they had good cause to dread, the increase of any
Hungarian influence.

7 2 The Beautiful Queen

The Duke of Durazzo, as the husband of Maria
of Sicily, was peculiarly interested in this question,
and no sooner was he married to Maria than he
began to intrigue not only against Andrew, but
against Joanna also. Through his uncle, Cardinal
Talleyrand, he secretly represented to the Pope at
Avignon the danger which would ensue for Naples
if Andrew were crowned, in which case the Nea-
politans feared their kingdom would become merely
a province of Hungary. Clement considered their
representations, and delayed to grant the Bull for
the coronation for two years after Robert's death ;
then the court of Hungary is said to have sent
the Pope's council a bribe of 100,000 florins, after
Which Clement issued a Bull for the coronation of
Andrew and Joanna, but of Andrew only as the
Queen's consort, without giving him any personal
claim to the crown. The date for the coronation
was fixed for September 20th, 1345.

Before coming to the events that occurred on the
eve of this long-delayed coronation, it will be as well
to take a glimpse at the condition of Europe at this
time, and then briefly to recapitulate the conflicting
interests in the Neapolitan court, so as to bring
before our readers the principal dramatis persona
in what came perilously like an Adelphi drama.

Pierre Roger, who took the title of Clement VI.
when he ascended the Papal throne in the year
King Robert died, 1342, was, as his name implies,

Plots and Counterplots 73

a Frenchman, and the fourth of the Avignon Popes.
He loved magnificence and pomp, and the notori-
ously luxurious court of Avignon was never more
luxurious than under his rule. He was fond of
the society of ladies, and allowed them to frequent
his court ; he became a great friend of Joanna's,
as will appear. He had many great qualities. He
was frank, noble, and generous to a fault, and
dispensed his favours with both liberality and grace.
His failing, of which his detractors have made
the most, was a love of luxury. On the other
hand, his benevolence was equally great, and at
the time of the plague, when in 1348 it visited
Avignon, he not only gave most lavishly to the
hospitals and sufferers, but enacted very wise laws
for its suppression. Naturally highly gifted, he spent
much of his time in study, and had such an excellent
memory that Petrarch says he never forgot anything
that he read : indeed if he had wished to do so he
could not.

He admired Petrarch, and offered him the post
of apostolic secretary ; but nothing could induce
the poet to accept it — probably because he dis-
approved of the luxury of the Avignon court and
the licentiousness of the city, for it was never in
a worse state than during the reign of this gentle
and refined pontiff.

The struggle between the Empire and the Papacy
was still going on when he came to the throne,

74 The Beautiful Queen

though Louis the Bavarian, who for the last thirty
years had troubled the peace of the Popes, had now
pretended to submit. In 1344, however, he had
the impudence to convoke a diet at Frankfort, which
he induced to protest against, what they described
as, the ambition and violence of the Pope.

Clement VI. thus provoked determined on
the deposition of Louis in favour of Charles of
Luxembourg, who was elected in 1346, and ascended
the throne the following year under the title of
Charles IV., when Louis died. Thus ended the long
contests between the Papacy and the Empire.

Clement published two Bulls for the protection
of the Jews from the persecutions to which they
had been subjected under his predecessors, and he
extended the Jubilee, which then only occurred every
hundred years, to every fifty years. This was
a very popular action with the Romans, for the
year of the Jubilee brings an enormous number
of pilgrims and other visitors to Rome, and the
citizens made a good harvest out of it and also in
the sale of pious articles, rosaries, medals, and other
objects of devotion.

The year after Clement came to the throne, Cola
de Rienzi, the great Roman patriot, came to Avignon
at the head of a deputation of the Romans to urge
the Pope to return to Rome ; but they were un-
successful, as Clement refused to leave Avignon
for Rome, the scene of constant struggles between

Plots and Counter *plots 75

the rival barons and the people. On Rienzi's return
to Rome he incited the citizens to rise against the
nobles, his hatred of them having been excited by
the assassination of his younger brother some years
previously.

Rienzi's romantic career is so well known that
we need only refer to it here, remembering that he
was afterwards sent back to Avignon as prisoner
and confined by Clement VI., and released by his
successor Innocent VI., who sent him back to Rome
to crush the nobles again. His tragic fate was due
to his haughtiness, which disgusted the people who
had formerly idolised him.

War between England and France was still going
on when Clement came to the throne. Benedict XII.,
who for the time being had settled the quarrel
between the Papacy and Louis of Bavaria, had also
succeeded in getting a truce proclaimed between
Edward III. of England and Philip VI. of Valois,
but it only lasted for a year. Edward was disputing
the throne of France with Philip on the ground
that being a nephew of the deceased King Charles IV.,
through his mother Isabella, Charles's sister, he was
therefore a degree nearer to the throne than Philip,
who was only cousin-german to Charles. The
Salic law, however, which excluded women from the
succession, prevailed in France, so there was no real
ground for Edward's pretensions. Friction between
the two monarchs had further arisen, first by Edward

76 The Beautiful Queen

having received Robert of Artois, who had been
banished from France, and then Philip had returned
the compliment by receiving David Bruce, who had
been dethroned from Scodand by Edward Balliol,
whom Edward III. supported.

Louis of Bavaria sided with the English, and
had also declared war against Philip, while Edward
was now expected to invade France. His first
attempt at invasion through Flanders had failed ;
but all Europe was disturbed and suffering from
this war between its two mightiest monarchs,
and Clement did his best to make peace, but only
succeeded so far as to get another truce proclaimed,
but it was not long observed.

The robber bands of mercenaries which followed
in the wake of both armies were a terror to all
Italy, as well as to France, where they penetrated
as far as Avignon, so that even a French Pope was
annoyed by the depredations of the French King's
forces.

If the state of France and Italy was such as to
give great anxiety to the Holy Father, when he
turned his eyes to Spain things were not much
better there. A struggle was going on there which
all Europe was watching with interest, between the
Moors who had overrun the country and the
Christians. Besides this religious strife, civil war
was disturbing the Peninsula, between the nobles
and priests on the one hand, and on the other the

Plots and Counterplots 77

members and representatives of a confederacy of
towns which had joined together for mutual defence
and had developed into a sort of Cortes.

It was really a struggle between the aristocracy
and the democracy, and in 1350, when Pedro the
Cruel came to the throne, the struggle was further
complicated by England taking the side of Pedro
and the people, and France that of the nobles under
Henry of Trastevera, an illegitimate son of the late
King Alphonso XL, and half-brdther of Pedro.

In Italy, Florence was at the head of all the other
cities in art and civilisation, but it was the scene
of constant combats between the Guelphs and the
Ghibellines. Naples, as we have said before, possessed
the most refined and cultivated court in Europe.
Rome was a prey to broils and insurrections, to
robbers and assassins, which while they rendered
expedient in some ways the exile of the Pope, were,
at the same time increased by his absence.

Venice was governed by a council of ten, with the
Doge at their head, possessing terrible powers over
the rest of the State ; and here and in Siena and all
the Italian cities, which were all independent States,
a constant struggle was going on, not only between
rival nobles, but also between nobles and people,
while the entire peninsula was to a large extent at
the mercy of all those marauding bands of mercenaries
which infested it, such as the White Company.

A celebrated contemporary of Joanna at Naples

78 The Beautiful Queen

was Marina Faliero, a distinguished military hero,
who, after being at war for years with the Hungarians,
finally defeated them in 1346, and some years later
was made Doge of Venice. He had a beautiful
young wife, whose romantic story and the subsequent
tragic ending of the Doge's life have been the subject
of Byron's drama " Marino Faliero," and of Swin-
burne's tragedy.

In Scandinavia, where the people were slowly
emerging from the dark night of paganism into the
glorious light of Christianity, there had arisen a
celebrated prophetess and politician, a Swedish prin-
cess, afterwards a canonised saint of the Church —
St. Bridget of Sweden, wife of Ulf, Prince of Nericia,
who left her a widow in 1345. She afterwards
became a friend of Joanna, whose court she visited
several times, once under very romantic circum-
stances, as we shall presently see. St. Bridget played
a great part in trying to induce Clement VI. to
leave Avignon and return to Rome, but she did
not succeed : it was left to the daughter of the
dyer at Siena, St. Catherine, to accomplish finally
the work of bringing back the Popes to the Eternal
City.

But to return to Naples, where the beautiful
young Queen and her boorish husband were
surrounded by conflicting influences. On the one
hand were Friar Robert in his dirty, ragged habit,
and his insolent and semi-barbarian Hungarians,

Plots and Counter 'plots 79

hated by all the Neapolitans, with an old nurse of
Andrew's in the background ; on the other side
were Philippa the Catanese, still a very handsome
woman, and her granddaughter Sancha, Charles,
Duke of Durazzo, and his child-wife Maria, the
Queen's sister, his mother, the Dowager Duchess of
Taranto, the widowed Empress of Constantinople,
Catherine of Valois, widow of Philip, Prince of
Taranto, and her three sons, the Bishop of Cavaillon,
the Queen's aunt, the Princess Maria of Sicily and
her satellite and lover, Boccaccio, a frequent visitor
at this brilliant court, and Nicholas Acciajuoli, the
handsome Florentine, afterwards promoted by the
Queen to be Grand Seneschal of the kingdom, for
whom the Empress of Constantinople is said to have
had more than a Platonic friendship. Indeed, it was
her indifferent reputation and her intimacy with
Nicholas which led to his being accused of being the
actual murderer of Andrew.

Two other conspicuous personages at the Nea-
politan court at this time were Charles Artus, Grand
Chancellor of Naples, and a member of the Council
of Regency, appointed by the late King Robert and
his son, both of whom were also great friends of
the Empress of Constantinople.

CHAPTER VI

The Murder of Andrew

TT was the custom of the Angevine Kings and

*■ Queens of Naples to leave the city during the

summer, when the heat became intolerable, and take

up their abode in one of their delightful summer

residences, or more often in one of the monasteries

which they had founded, in the neighbourhood of

Naples, where the beautiful gardens and spacious

apartments formed a pleasant retreat from the cares

of State and the noise and sultriness of the city.

In 1345 Joanna had special reasons for desiring

to get away from Naples, for she was expecting to

become a mother at the end of the year; and in

the month of August she and Andrew removed

to the castle of Aversa, to enjoy the cool retreat

of the gardens in the Celestine monastery close by,

and to escape the preparations for their coronation

in Naples next month. Aversa is situated about

80

The Murder of Andrew 81

twelve miles north of Naples, in the enchanting
scenery of the district known as " the happy Cam-
pania." In this fatal year, 1345, Aversa consisted
of little more than its grand old castle, which be-
longed to the Crown, and a fine old Celestine
monastery with lovely grounds, the town not having
recovered from its demolition by Charles of Anjou,
who destroyed it to punish the inhabitants for having
sided with some barons who were averse to his
policy. Hence its name, Aversa.

The castle was surrounded then by olive-woods,
and orange-gardens, and dark forests of cedars and
other trees; and in this delightful retreat, relieved
from the presence of the odious Friar Robert, who
remained behind to govern the kingdom, the young
Queen enjoyed her villeggiatura, looking forward
openly to her approaching coronation, and secretly
dreaming of the fulfilment of her hopes of maternity
at the close of the year.

But while Joanna, in her youthful innocence,
dreamt of the splendour and pomp of her coronation,
in which she took a girlish and natural pride and
delight, and meditated upon the still more sacred
and purer joys of motherhood, which the poorest of
her subjects were also privileged to enjoy, these
coming events were casting a shadow over the pages
of history which time will never efface.

These two circumstances, the coronation and the
birth of an heir to the throne, were the immediate

6

82 The Beautiful Queen

causes of the murder of the young king ; for the
Neapolitans feared that when once Andrew was
crowned, Friar Robert, who ruled him, would rule
them, and tyrannise more than ever over the king-
dom ; and in the next place, they anticipated that the
birth of an heir to the throne would endear Andrew
to the Queen, and give him fresh claims upon the
affection and loyalty of the people.

So while the young sovereigns were enjoying the
combined pleasures of court and country life, of
music and dancing, of the tales of the poet and
the songs of the troubadour, of the outdoor sports
of falconry and tournaments, a vile plot was being
hatched among the courtiers for the assassination of
Andrew.

Although Friar Robert was left in Naples, some
of the Hungarian suite had accompanied Andrew
to Aversa, and it is particularly noted that his old
nurse, Isolda, who was passionately attached to him,
was staying in the castle. At this distance of time
it is impossible to fix the guilt of this odious murder
of the young King upon anyone ; but it is possible,
judging from the known character of some who were
accused of it, and in the knowledge of subsequent
events, to acquit at least two of them of complicity
in it.

We may dismiss at once as altogether improbable,
if not impossible, the theory that Joanna had any
part in it, and equally unlikely is it that a man of so

The Murder of Andrew 83

fine a nature as Nicholas Acciajuoli was the actual
murderer, as is stated by de Sade in his Life of
Petrarch ; and many other writers have copied him,
without questioning what a little more knowledge
of the man would have shown was at least highly
improbable.

Acciajuoli's intimacy with the Empress of Con-
stantinople seems to have been the cause of his being
accused, for the probability seems to be in favour of
the opinion that this princess, whose moral character
would not bear investigation, was one of the
principal conspirators against Andrew, her well-
known desire being to see her son Louis in his
place.

Philippa the Catanese is believed by some writers
to have known of and sympathised with the plot,
her motive being to deliver Joanna, whom she
idolised, from her boorish husband, who appears
to have been totally blind to her charms. But first
and foremost of all the conspirators was undoubtedly
the ambitious and unscrupulous Charles, Duke of
Durazzo, who is frequently accused of being one of
the actual assassins.

For six weeks the young Queen and her husband
led a happy and gay life at Aversa, whose pro-
pinquity to Naples permitted the daily coming and
going of all those courtiers who were not living
at the Castle.

September 20th had been fixed as the date of the

84 The Beautiful Queen

coronation of Joanna as Queen and of Andrew as
King-consort, and on the eve of that day a great
banquet was given at the Castle to celebrate the
great occasion fitly.

The sovereigns appear to have retired early to
rest in view of the fatigue of the coronation on the
following day ; the Hungarian courtiers and atten-
dants had as usual taken more than was good for
them, and were sunk in too deep a sleep to hear the
subsequent disturbance, but the conspirators Were
wide awake, bent on executing their fell purpose.

In the adjoining monastery the black-robed monks
who had risen at midnight for matins, had gone
to bed again, and all there was quiet when in the
dead of the night, between one and two o'clock, one
of the Queen's ladies of the bedchamber, Mabrice,
sister of Andrew's chamberlain, Jacobo de Pace,
entered the royal bed-chamber in haste, and told
the King that a courier from Friar Robert had just
arrived with dispatches of great importance, and
desired to see him upon State business.

The poor, unsuspecting young King rose at once,
and dressing hurriedly left the sleeping Queen, to
proceed to another apartment at the end of a long
gallery where,- instead of the supposed courier being
in attendance, the conspirators were assembled.
These are believed to have been Charles Artus and
his son, Jacobo de Pace, Michael de Mirazzano,
Andrew's chamberlain, Philippa's son the Count of

The Murder of Andrew 85

Evoli, and her son-in-law the Count de Trelice, and
Raymond of Catania, the Grand Seneschal.

Directly the King left the bed-chamber, some of
the conspirators locked the door, either to prevent
the Queen from coming out and raising an alarm,
or to hinder Andrew from returning. When the
unfortunate young man, who was not yet twenty,
had reached the middle of the corridor, he was
surrounded and seized by some of the conspirators.
To muffle his cries one thrust an iron gauntlet into
his mouth, another threw a rope round his neck to
strangle him, others knelt upon his chest; and. then
they dragged him to the balcony and hanged him
over it, while their accomplices in the garden below
seized his feet and strangled him by pulling them.
Not content with thus brutally murdering him,
according to some accounts, they actually dis-
embowelled him, and were about to bury his remains
in a ditch in the garden, intending to say that
he had left Italy for Hungary, when they were
interrupted.

It appears that his faithful nurse, Isolda, slept in
a room under the balcony, and was awakened by the
sound of his falling body when they cut the cords
which held it suspended. Whether she guessed who
the victim was, or whether she saw it was the King,
we do not know, but she managed to run to the
monastery close by and awaken the monks, who
hastened to the garden, where their arrival dispersed

86 The Beautiful Queen

the murderers, who were now about to bury the
body.

The tears and lamentations of Isolda were probably
the most sincere that honoured the mangled corpse
of the unfortunate victim of this foul murder, for,
in spite of his unattractiveness, as to which all writers
are agreed, his old nurse loved him passionately —
perhaps because of those very weaknesses — and her
faithful heart was torn with grief and horror at the
marks of violence on his corpse as she prepared it
for burial.

The monks carried the remains into the church
of the convent, and watched it and prayed for the
repose of his soul, until three days later he was
taken to Naples to be buried.

There are many versions of the account of this
murder, no two of which agree in detail with each
other ; but the above is taken from Costanzo, the
most reliable of the biographers of Joanna. Some
later Italian writers have given their imaginations
play and concocted scenes which probably never
occurred. For instance one, Rastrelli, says that the
Hungarian Isolda, on entering the Queen's apart-
ments in the morning according to her usual custom,
found Joanna sitting up by the bedside, and when
she asked where the King was the Queen, laughing,
replied that she did not know. The nurse then
went out, and, following a miraculous light, found
Andrew's body lying on the ground below the

The IVIurcler of Andrew 87

balcony. Thinking that he was asleep, she returned
to Joanna and said, " Your Majesty, the King sleeps
in the garden"; to which the Queen answered, "Let
him sleep there." Isolda, still unsatisfied, went down
again to the garden, where her appearance put the
murderers to flight and she discovered the truth.

Those who, like Muratori, suspected Joanna of
complicity in this atrocious crime represent the
Hungarian nurse as rushing into the Queen's room,
after she had discovered the murder, and informing
Joanna of it, and state that when others, drawn by
her cries to the room, confirmed the report, " the
Queen was so conscience-stricken, and so great was
her confusion, that she could not even rise from
the spot, but lay there until the morning was far
advanced, and knew not how to raise her tearless
eyes, or to look up at any one."

Thus does the malignant spirit of calumny
interpret the poor young Queen's most natural
behaviour upon hearing of such a terrible catastrophe
as that which had just happened. Her tearlessness
was no proof of guilt ; on the contrary, it is often
a sign of the deepest feeling — of grief too deep for
words, too bitter for tears. She was evidently
paralysed with horror ; tears would have been a
blessed boon, but they were denied her, and the
child was yet unborn who might have brought them
"like a summer tempest." Nor could they praise
the unfortunate victim, either " soft and low " or

88 The Beautiful Queen

hard and high, for there seems to have been little
to praise and much to blame in the late King. If
Joanna's calumniators had nothing more incriminating
to go upon than her behaviour on the morning
following the murder, there would not be the slightest
foundation for their accusations ; on the contrary,
her conduct was exactly what might have been
expected from any young wife on such an occasion.

She says of herself, in a most touching letter
which she wrote to Andrew's brother the King of
Hungary : " Stunned by grief I had well-nigh died
of the same wounds " ; and there is not the slightest
reason for doubting that this was the very truth.

Another historian says of her : " The Queen, who
was only eighteen years old, trembled so that she
did not know what to do with herself."

Later in the morning Joanna rose, and in a terrible
state of agitation and fear left Aversa, and returned
to Naples ; and calling all her best friends around
her, asked their advice in the horrible calamity
which had befallen the royal house.

The first thing to be done was to send letters
to inform the Pope and the King of Hungary, and
messengers were at once dispatched with the ghastly
news to Rome and Hungary, In the above-
mentioned letter from the young widowed Queen
to Louis of Hungary, Joanna implored the King's
protection for herself and her unborn child. How
Louis responded to this appeal will presently appear.

The Murder of Andrew 89

Another ridiculous charge brought against Joanna
is that she left the body of Andrew unburied for
three days, and that then it was brought to Naples
and buried by the canons of the cathedral at their
own expense. The facts were that the body was
left in the charge of the Celestine monks in their
church at Aversa until the necessary arrangements
could be made in Naples for the funeral ; and these
for a king could not be completed sooner, for the
funeral rites and ceremonies due to Andrew's rank
were elaborate, and if he had been hurriedly buried
the scandalmongers would have seen in this
precipitation fresh proof of guilt and a desire of
concealment.

At the end of the three days the body was brought
to Naples, and laid in the chapel of St. Louis in the
cathedral with many tears and lamentations. It is
said that the Neapolitans showed the greatest horror
of the crime, and Andrew's undeserved sufferings
moved the hardest hearts to sympathy ; this circum-
stance is recorded unanimously by all historians.
Indeed, the murder of Andrew sent a thrill of horror
all over Europe ; there was not a court that was not
horrified and scandalised by it.

The reproach brought against Joanna that she
allowed the canons of the cathedral to pay for the
funeral is absurd : it was their duty to perform
the ceremony, for the Neapolitan sovereigns were
always buried in the cathedral, and it was probably

90 The Beautiful Queen

the custom for these canons tp bear some of the
expenses, just as the canons of St. Peter's at Rome
had to pay for the greater part of the Popes' funeral
expenses.

The faults of Andrew have probably been
exaggerated by his contemporaries, for it was the
policy of Joanna's friends and enemies alike to
paint him as black as possible : her friends did so
to excuse her if she were guilty of connivance in his
assassination, her enemies to find a motive for the
personal repulsion they supposed her to feel to
such an extent as to make her an accomplice in
his murder.

He is described as a ferocious boor, a glutton,
a drunkard, and a semi-idiot, with low propensities
and gross habits. On the other hand, Petrarch, who
knew him personally, writing when the shock of
his murder was fresh in his mind, to his friend
Barbatus of Sulmone, calls him " the most gentle
and inoffensive of men, a youth of a rare disposition,
a prince of great hopes." The poet also says that
he foresaw that some dreadful calamities threatened
this unhappy kingdom, but that he did not imagine
that a young and innocent prince would be the first
victim sacrificed to barbarity.

Petrarch's praise must be discounted by, the fact
that Andrew's release of the Pipini had won his
regard and gratitude, and also by the consideration
that the poet's eloquence often led him to exaggerate.

The Murder of Andrew 91

The just measure of Andrew's character is perhaps
somewhere between Petrarch's praise and the blame
of Italian historians.

Possibly Andrew, had he lived, might have de-
veloped later in such a way as to justify the hopes
of which Petrarch speaks ; but his culpable indolence
and consequent gross ignorance made him a mere
tool in the hands of Friar Robert and his tutor,
Nicholas of Hungary, whose ambition and tyranny,
by rousing the hatred of the Neapolitans against
the Hungarians, had contributed to the deplorable
calamity.

Another cause of the assassination was undoubtedly
connected with the Pipini. When King Robert had
imprisoned these counts, he enriched certain of the
Neapolitan nobles with their spoils : when Andrew
released them from their captivity, and took them
into such great favour, these nobles feared they
would fall into the hands of the Pipini, and be
deprived by them of their fortunes and probably
of their lives also.

Among them were the son and sons-in-law of
Philippa the Catanese, and they were peculiarly
obnoxious to Robert, and the probability is that
they, being greatly interested in getting rid of
Andrew, were among the conspirators. Philippa
has been universally condemned as being implicated
in the guilt of the Count of Evoli, her son, and
her sons-in-law, but in her favour it must be said

92 The Beautiful Queen

that neither she nor her grand-daughter Sancha
was in the gallery or near the royal bed-chamber
at the time of the murder.

The Duke of Durazzo may or may not have
devised the plot against Andrew ; but if we give
him the benefit of the doubt in this case, it is
certain that he cannot be acquitted of almost as
cruel a crime in trying to destroy Joanna by openly
accusing her of the murder of her husband, in order
to rise himself on her ruin. He held her up to
universal execration ; and if he did not murder the
King, he murdered the fair name and reputation
of the young Queen.

Charles Artus and his son, whether innocent or
not, behaved as if they were guilty, for they fled
precipitately immediately after the murder had
taken place, and took refuge with the Empress
of Constantinople, who has in consequence been
accused, with great presumption of truth, of being
one of the conspirators. But if the letters which
the King of Hungary afterwards alleged that the
Duke of Durazzo wrote to Charles Artus were
genuine, Durazzo was certainly one of the con-
spirators, for in this letter the murder was planned
and arranged. In spite of his vile assertions
against Joanna, not a particle of circumstantial
evidence was ever forthcoming against her, or
against Louis of Taranto, in all the inquiries which
followed, and the only evidence against Nicholas

The Murder of Andrew 93

Acciajuoli was his intimacy with the Empress of
Constantinople.

Much has been made by Joanna's enemies of
the fact of the court going to Aversa. They allege
that she inveigled Andrew there in order to get rid
of him more easily, but we have already explained
the reasons for this customary villeggiatura. We
must now note that the only historians of any
repute, contemporary with Joanna, who have accused
her of complicity in the murder were the two
Villanis, both very credulous men, and Matthew
Villani was an intimate friend of Nicholas the
Hungarian, the tutor of Andrew. It was, of course,
to this man's interest to calumniate Joanna, for the
only hope the Hungarians had of regaining their
ascendency in the kingdom was by destroying
Joanna's influence and reputation.

After the King of Hungary received the Queen's
touching letter, containing the terrible news of
Andrew's assassination, he issued a manifesto to
all the sovereigns of Europe announcing the death
of his brother ; and it is very remarkable, in view
of his subsequent conduct, that he makes no
accusation against the Queen in this first document ;
later on, when he found that it might be practicable
to seize her kingdom, he inculpated her. Then
it was that Pope Clement VI., who was in a
better position to know the truth than any one
else in Europe, wrote a letter to Louis, in which

94 The Beautiful Queen

lie said, "As to the murder of Prince Andrew,
Joanna can neither be convicted nor suspected of
it, and still less has she confessed it."

Petrarch was convinced of her innocence, and,
although he was not at Naples at the time of the
murder, he obtained all his information from his
intimate friend, the Bishop of Cavaillon, who was
on the spot.

Boccaccio was also at the court when the tragedy
occurred ; and he and two of the most celebrated
lawyers of the day, Angelo and Baldus of Perugia,
not only believed in Joanna's innocence, but also in
her incapability of such a crime, Angelo calling her
" a most holy Queen, the honour of the world and
the light of Italy." And here we may mention
that Joanna is known to this day among Neapolitans
as " the good Queen Jane " ; and as the boatmen
row past the grim castle of Muro, in which she
was eventually imprisoned and murdered, they raise
their caps in honour of " the good Queen."

But the most conclusive piece of negative evidence
in favour of Joanna is the fact that her great and
cruel enemy, Pope Urban VI., himself a Neapolitan,
once Archbishop of Bari, when he fulminated his
Bull of excommunication and deposition against
Joanna, never breathed a word of reproach or accu-
sation of her having consented to the murder of
her first husband. Lastly, all the best Neapolitan
and Provencal historians, and all the most enlightened

The Murder of Andrew 95

of her contemporaries, have entirely exonerated her
in this matter.

One of Villani's assertions against Joanna, prompted
no doubt by Nicholas the Hungarian, is that she
showed little or no concern at the death of her
husband ; but this is flatly contradicted by the
repeated declarations of Pope Clement VI., that she
always expressed the greatest horror at the murder
of Andrew, and deplored his tragical fate with the
deepest grief.

CHAPTER VII

What followed the Murder

"NTOWHERE did the assassination of Andrew
*■ ^ rouse more interest and cause more sensa-
tion than at Avignon, whose magnificent Papal
palace stood in Joanna's dominions, for as heiress
and Countess of Provence she owned the whole
of that province, through the Angevine line. The
people of Provence never wavered in their allegiance
to Joanna, whom they called " la bonne Reine
Jeanne," and so long as Provence remained distinct
from the French monarchy her memory was idolised
there.

Immediately Clement VI. received the Queen's
letter announcing the tragedy which had befallen
her, he ordered Philip de Cabassole, who had been
created a Cardinal with the title of St. Mark, to hold
an inquiry into the crime and to punish the mur-
derers : the Pope did this because he had assumed
the government of Naples during Joanna's minority.

96

What followed the Murder 97

The Cardinal was ordered to keep the evidence
secret if it implicated the Queen or any of the
royal family, but he was unable to arrive at any
definite conclusion.

Some of those who were suspected of being
conspirators fled to their own castles and fortified
themselves there ; some, it is said, were put to death
secretly ; others, who were arrested on suspicion,
were taken out of prison at night by those who
dreaded that they might confess and incriminate
them, and to prevent this they cut out their
tongues.

The rumour that Joanna was a participator in
the crime was at first only whispered, but it was
fostered no doubt by Friar Robert and the Hun-
garians, till it grew louder and louder, and the
poor young Queen found herself surrounded by
treason.

Naples was in such a state of anarchy that the streets
were unsafe. The young noblemen and officers
went about armed, challenging the passers-by to
open combat, which frequently ended in loss of life ;
while the great barons in their castles openly defied
what government there was, and highwaymen infested
the roads, robbing and murdering any travellers
they happened to meet. Two or three months
thus elapsed without any of the conspirators being
brought to justice. Joanna is blamed most unjustly
by her detractors for this delay, but it was clearly

7

9 8 The Beautiful Queen

no fault of hers. The Pope having placed the reins
of government in his legate's hands, she was power-
less to exercise any legal authority. If she had
interfered with the Cardinal's efforts, her enemies
would have said that she wanted to turn aside the
course of justice, and that her guilty conscience
prompted her- to intervene. Moreover, if she had
possessed the legal power to act, her delicate state of
health would have incapacitated her from exercising
it, as the birth of her child was daily drawing nearer.

Shortly before Christmas the Bishop of Cavaillon,
who was far too meek and gentle to cope with a
situation so distasteful to him, obtained the Pope's
consent to his resignation of his appointment as
head of the Council of Regency, and to his return
to his bishopric in Provence ; and on December 23rd
he embarked from Naples for Marseilles, but a
violent storm drove him ashore on the coast of
Herculaneum, where he landed with difficulty. In
the meanwhile a great commotion was going on at
Castle Nuovo : the Queen was taken ill, doctors
and ministers of State were summoned to the
palace to await the interesting event, and while
the storm was still raging Joanna gave birth to a
son and heir.

The Pope had already promised to stand god-
father to her child, and the Cardinal Bishop was
required to represent His Holiness. Baptisms in
Italy are celebrated within twenty-four hours of

What followed the Murder 99

birth, so messengers were at once dispatched to
Herculaneum to bring back the shipwrecked Cardinal
to stand proxy for the Pope.

It was the custom to name the Neapolitan princes
after the paternal grandfather, and Joanna scrupu-
lously observed this etiquette, and named her son
after Andrew's father, Canrobert, the late King of
Hungary. There were great rejoicings in Naples
at the birth of an heir to the throne, and these were
a great consolation to Joanna, who looked upon
them as proofs of the affection and loyalty of the
greater part of the nation.

The day after the baptism the Bishop of Cavaillon
re-embarked for Marseilles, but he was caught in
a more terrific storm than before ; and as he himself
relates in his autobiography, which he wrote shortly
afterwards, he was saved this time miraculously by
St. Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of Marseilles,
whom he invoked. Petrarch was in Provence at
this time ; and when the Cardinal arrived at Avignon
in January, the two friends met, and having heard
de Cabassole's account of the assassination of
Andrew and all he had done to discover the con-
spirators, Petrarch wrote the letter from which we
have quoted, to his friend Barbatus of Sulmone.
Surely if there had been the slightest truth in the
scandalous rumours about Joanna, the Cardinal
would have told his intimate friend, who always
believed in the Queen's innocence.

loo The Beautiful Queen

Immediately after the Cardinal left Naples the
Pope sent two bishops to the Neapolitan court
to take charge of the young prince, for Joanna
being a minor was not allowed to bring up her
own child. Perhaps Clement may have feared that
there might be some foul play, as he knew the
Queen was surrounded by traitors, and the murder
of the King had made the Neapolitans a byword
all over Europe ; at any rate the Bishops of Padua
and Monte Casino arrived at Castel Nuovo before
the baby was a month old.

Joanna was now eighteen, and as soon as she
had recovered from the birth of the child she sent
for the most trusted friends of the late King Robert,
and took counsel with them as to the best means to
be pursued to bring the murderers of her husband
to justice. She did not wait to ask the Pope's
sanction, knowing he would refuse it on account of
her youth; but she acted on her own initiative, and
displayed that good sense and wise policy for which
she was afterwards so famed.

A deputation from the nobility of Naples waited
upon the Queen, and begged her to take the ad-
ministration of affairs into her own hands now that
the Cardinal legate, who had signally failed in his
mission to discover the conspirators, had retired.
The members of this deputation with remarkable
frankness told the Queen of the rumours which
were afloat about her complicity in the murder,

What followed the Murder 101

saying that some boldly accused her of it, and adding
that the disaffection was growing daily.

Her next move was to cause to be affixed to her
palace-walls and to other public buildings a severe
edict against the conspirators. She then signed; a
commission empowering one of the Neapolitan
barons, named Hugh de Baux, to execute justice
on all who were found guilty, without respect of
persons. This edict was signed in February, 1846
(old style) — that is, five months after the assassina-
tion, but the reasons for the delay have, we hope,
been made sufficiently clear to exonerate the Queen.

Joanna now wrote a second letter to Louis of
Hungary, from which we shall quote the most
salient passages. She says :

" I hear that many wonder that I have suffered
the parricides [sic] who have slain my husband and
your brother to go so long unpunished. What is
this, then ? Why do the people accuse me of this
great iniquity, when I have always dearly loved King
Andrew, my excellent husband, and he as long as
his life lasted always lived in peace with me ? But
whatever the rest of men may suspect, I earnestly
desire that you should believe that it has not been
possible for me to avenge this great injury done to
me, from my ignorance of the assassins, and from
the difficulties of the times, and that I have suffered
so much anguish of mind from the murder of my
beloved husband that, stunned by grief, I had well-

102 The Beautiful Queen

nigh died of the same wounds." The last sentence
has been quoted before in this book, but it is as well
to repeat it with the context in which it so naturally
occurs and seems to give such unconscious evidence
of her innocence. For if she had found Andrew a
peaceable, excellent husband whom she loved tenderly,
why should she have consented to his murder ?

Hugh de Baux's methods of getting at the truth,
or attempting to do so, were barbarous in the ex-
treme, but they were the constant practice of the
age in which he lived. He seized some of Andrew's
chamberlains and proceeded to torture them, to
extract so-called confessions, in which no sort of
confidence could be placed, for the victims would
say anything when on the rack.

The Duke of Durazzo opposed the original plan
of holding these ghastly inquisitions in the halls of
the public courts of justice, where all the people
would have heard them, and instead examined the
prisoners in his own palace. This on the face of
it looks very suspicious, and as if the Duke had
only too good reason to fear that he might be
accused himself ; whereas if the examination was held
under his roof, the victims would say anything and
accuse any one but the Duke, in the hope of cutting
short their sufferings.

The chamberlains, Nicholas di Mirazzano and
Jacobo de Pace, made many accusations. Among
others they accused Charles Artus and his son — no

What followed the Murder 103

doubt justly ; and then it was that these two fled
to the Empress of Constantinople. Others who
were accused of being in the plot fortified them-
selves in their castles, while Philippa and her son
the Count d'Evoli, her son-in-law, her grand-
daughter Sancha and her husband, who were also
denounced, were all living either in the Castel
Nuovo or in Naples, and daily frequenting the
court.

Now it is very remarkable that none of those
who were tortured, either now or later, ever accused
Joanna of being in any way connected with the
crime, and apparently she had never for one moment
suspected Philippa — her father's foster-mother, the
old tried friend of her grandfather and Queen
Sancha, and her own faithful nurse and governess
and friend, who had been all but a mother to her
— of having had any part in the conspiracy.

Philippa and her granddaughter Sancha had con-
tinued to live at Castel Nuovo with Joanna, and
we can fancy Philippa, who had nursed Joanna and
her father, now idolising the infant prince. She had
evidently been with the young Queen all through
the terrible trials which had befallen her, and there
is no doubt that Joanna was greatly attached to her ;
and therefore it can be imagined how great was her
horror when the messengers of Hugh de Baux,
to whom she had given such absolute power over
the murderers when he had discovered them, arrived

104 The Beautiful Queen

at the palace to arrest Philippa and Sancha. They
are said to have been sitting with the Queen, either
at their spinning-wheels or embroidery-frames, when
the guards entered the room and dragged them
forcibly from Joanna's presence, in spite of her pro-
testations, which were in vain. Philippa, who must
have been nearer seventy than sixty at this time, is
described by some writers as a decrepit old woman,
while others say she was still handsome, though it is
true that Sicilian and Neapolitan women age much
sooner than their Northern sisters, so it is possible
the Catanese may have been old in appearance as
well as in years.

Sancha was only about twenty, a young wife
in the prime of her beauty ; but neither her youth
nor Philippa's age availed them anything. They
were dragged down to the sea-shore, and there,
in the presence of crowds of people, were tortured
in a manner too horrible to describe. The mob
was not allowed to come near enough to hear what
the sufferers said under torture, but they were able
to witness the horrible proceedings.

A place was prepared for the execution of these
two unfortunate women, who, whether guilty or
not, evoke our sympathy for the brutal manner in
which this so-called justice was administered. To
the scaffold they were dragged on a sledge, but,
happily for her, Philippa died on the way thither,
exhausted by the torments to which she had been

What followed the Murder 105

submitted ; while Sancha, whose tortures were even
more horrible than her grandmother's, was burnt
alive. Philippa was disembowelled, and her head
affixed to one of the gates of the city. Her son,
the Count d'Evoli, and her son-in-law, the Count of
Trelice, were not executed until August 2nd, and a
few days later some of the other barons who were
arrested were put to death. The mob was so
demoralised that after these executions they mangled
the bodies of the executed conspirators with their
teeth and nails out of sheer vicious ferocity. It
is said that the Count d'Evoli was much favoured
by Joanna in the beginning of her reign, but she
was as powerless to save him from execution as
she had been in the case of Philippa and Sancha.

Joanna's whole life was, to some extent, saddened
by these events, for she was tenderly and deeply
attached to Philippa, and Sancha had been the
companion of her childhood and youth, for they
had been brought up together ; while Philippa had
never been separated from her for a single day
ever since her birth until the day she was dragged
from her to torture and death.

From that day the young Queen, taught by this
most bitter experience, never wholly trusted any one
again ; from henceforth she bore alone the cares
of royalty, and the solitude of those whose high
rank places them above their fellow men.

Before these trials befell the young Queen she

io6 The Beautiful Queen

is said to have been of a most joyous disposition,
full of mirth and high spirits, loving gaiety and
all the pleasures of the court ; but from henceforth
dignity and majesty are the first characteristics
mentioned in every description of her. In private
life she was from this time kind and affable rather
than gay and lively, while in public life she was
noted for her masculine energy and firmness.

Boccaccio says of her that " from the time that
she began to govern not in name only, but in fact,
she conducted herself with so much prudence that
she daily transacted the affairs of State with barons,
warriors, counsellors, and other ministers, with
such unblemished fame that neither the eyes nor
ears of envy ever perceived anything with which
to calumniate her. She was modest in her manner
of living, and the very character of her beauty
was rather that of majesty than ot softness or
voluptuousness." Yet she ever retained a charm
of manner, which together with her beauty made
her the centre of admiration of her brilliant court
and the idol of the fcourtiers who surrounded her,
while the fame of her majestic, or, as some writers
say, angelic loveliness was a theme of conver-
sation in all the courts of Europe.

It is not certain what became of Charles Artus
and his son. It is said by some authors that they
were imprisoned at Benevento, and put to death
privately there, out of respect to King Robert, of

From an engraving after the painting by Titian.

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO.
p. ro6]

What followed the Murder 107

whom Charles Artus the elder is believed to have
been the natural son. Other writers deny this,
and say that he was the husband of Robert's natural
daughter, the Princess Maria of Sicily.

The Empress of Constantinople, who had sheltered
them, died in the October following the execution of
Philippa and Sancha. Her death took place at Naples.
She was the last of the Queen's relatives of the elder
generation, except Maria of Sicily ; and as now the
Duke of Durazzo had rebelled against her, she was
deprived of the society of her sister, and, the friends
of her youth having fallen on the scaffold, she was
more than ever alone.

The Princess of Taranto died without living to see
the marriage of Joanna and her second son Louis
accomplished, for which she had certainly planned
and plotted — if she had not actually, as many believe,
arranged the assassination of Andrew to make way
for Louis.

The next trial that befell Joanna was civil war,
brought about by the rebellion of the Duke of
Durazzo, who now openly accused the Queen of the
murder of her husband, and hoisted his standard
against her. He was joined by his own brothers and
by his cousin Philip, the youngest of the sons of the
Empress of Constantinople, whose youth made him
a prey to the flattery of Durazzo.

Robert, the eldest of the Princes of Taranto, had
just returned from Greece, and he and his second

108 The Beautiful Queen

brother Louis took Joanna's part, and commanded
her troops and went out to meet the Duke of
Durazzo's forces. But while these princes were
fighting against each other, both were dreading that
the King of Hungary would invade the kingdom
to avenge his brother's death.

Joanna, foreseeing this event, had sent an embassy,
with the Bishop of Tropea at its head, to Louis
of Hungary, after the birth of her son, to deliver
the letter we quoted above, and the Bishop did not
return until early in the following year, 1347 (old
style).

Friar Robert and Nicholas the Hungarian had
already gone back to Hungary, fearing the power
of their adversaries after the death of Andrew ; and
they had of course given their version of what had
happened to their master, and had succeeded in so
misrepresenting Joanna that they had convinced
him of her guilt, and Louis, burning with rage
and the desire of revenge, was now making alliances
with other powers, and preparing a large army to
invade Joanna's dominions.

The Bishop of Tropea reported all these things
to Joanna on his return, and the threatening letter
he brought with him from the King of Hungary
to Joanna fully confirmed his observations.

Louis, King of Hungary, surnamed the Great,
who had succeeded his father Canrobert, or Charobert,
in 1342, was one of the most powerful European

What followed the Murder 109

monarchs of his time. His father had left the
kingdom to him after it had acquired under his
government a high degree of splendour, for it
embraced Bosnia, Servia, Croatia, Wallachia, Mol-
davia, Dalmatia, and Transylvania, besides Hungary-
proper. Louis was most warlike and ambitious :
he fought successfully the Transylvanians, the
Croatians, Wallachians, and Venetians, and, as we
shall see, twice during Joanna's reign he invaded
Naples and made himself a terror to the in-
habitants.

His father, we know, had considered he had a
claim on the kingdom ; and when Joanna's sister,
Maria of Sicily, whom Friar Robert had advised
Louis to marry, eloped with Charles of Durazzo,
Louis was intensely annoyed, for this, as the wily
friar foresaw, would have been a stepping-stone to
the coveted crown of Naples, which probably Louis
would in any case have endeavoured to wrest from
Joanna. The murder of Andrew gave him some
pretext for attempting this, and when it was
announced to him his wrath and desire of revenge
as well as of conquest knew no bounds, and are
apparent in the following letter to Joanna.

" Joanna ! your former irregular life, your con-
tinuing to retain the power of the kingdom, your
neglected vengeance, and your subsequent excuses
prove you to have been a participator in the death
of your husband. Remember, that none may escape

no The Beautiful Queen

the Divine and human vengeance due to such
enormous iniquity."

This threatening and historic letter is supposed
to contain the strongest arguments against Joanna
that can be urged ; but happily the four so-called
proofs of her guilt can be refuted. The first
accusation of leading an irregular life is an absolute
calumny for which there is no evidence, and is
dismissed by de Sade as insupportable. As Hallam
points out, " The name of Joanna of Naples has
suffered by the lax repetition of calumnies." He
adds that " the charge of dissolute manners so
frequently made is not warranted by any specific
proof or contemporary testimony."

The second accusation that she continued to
retain the power of her kingdom only shows what
Louis was aiming at. What else should the Queen
have done ? It was her kingdom, and Andrew's
death in no way detracted from her claims. While
her husband was alive the poor young Queen had
no power in her own kingdom, as we have seen,
for Friar Robert and his Hungarian followers had
supplanted her and her interests.

The third accusation, of " neglecting vengeance,"
we have been endeavouring to show was unavoidable
under the circumstances in which Joanna was placed.

The fourth, of her " subsequent excuses," is more
difficult to refute, if we endorse the French proverb
" qui s'excuse s'accuse " ; but if Joanna had taken

What followed the Murder m

the more dignified course of behaving as if she were
like Caesar's wife, " above suspicion," and had
scorned to defend herself, they would have said
that her silence gave consent to the assertions of her
guilt.

The poor young Queen found herself in most
difficult circumstances. It was most perplexing
to know how to act, surrounded as she was on all
sides by treason and treachery, her every action
cruelly criticised, and the worst interpretation put
upon all her deeds : she did the best she could, and
if venomous tongues aspersed her fair fame it was
no fault of hers. Directly she received Louis's cruel
letter she called together her councillors and laid it
before them, who recommended immediate prepara-
tions for defending the kingdom from the impending
invasion which it was clear Louis was bent upon
attempting, and, as a most necessary preliminary step,
they counselled their sovereign to marry again.

CHAPTER VIII
Joanna Marries a Second Time

THE consort chosen by the councillors for the
Queen was Louis of Taranto, the prince who
is accused by Joanna's enemies of having been
her paramour. The very fact that her ministers
suggested him as the most suitable husband for
her should be the answer to this calumnious report ;
for unless they desired that all future historians
should write them down asses, would they have
been so sublimely foolish as to choose for her pro-
tector and the partner of her throne her supposed
lover ? They must have known that there was not
a particle of truth in this scandal or they would
never have dared to set all Europe talking by
marrying Joanna to the man her enemies and
detractors said was criminally intimate with her.

Louis was at this time twenty-five ; he is described
as both handsome and charming, renowned for his
valour and also for his talents. He was proposed

Joanna Marries a Second Time 113

to the Council as a suitable husband for the Queen
by his eldest brother, Robert of Taranto, who had
lately married a daughter of the Duke of Bourbon.
The other councillors, feeling the necessity of con-
ciliating the princes of Taranto, lest if this offer
were rejected they should join their younger
brother Philip and the Duke of Durazzo, immedi-
ately agreed to the proposal. They were hampered
in their choice, which was confined to the Neapolitan
princes, for it would not have done at this juncture
to propose a foreign prince ; neither the royal family
nor the great barons would have agreed to that.

There was no difficulty with either of the parties
most interested in the marriage. Louis was known
to be madly in love with his beautiful cousin and
Queen, and Joanna is believed to have favoured
his suit : she had known him from childhood, and he
was from all accounts a very attractive man. Never-
theless it was some months before the marriage was
arranged. Louis, although a brave man in war, was
very diffident in love, and finally it was his friend and
tutor, Nicholas Acciajuoli, who did his wooing for
him and made all the preliminary arrangements.

The Duke of Durazzo opposed the marriage
vehemently, for it was a death-blow to his hopes
of securing the throne for his wife, Maria, which
he and the Durazzos were labouring to do by
calumniating Joanna, so as if possible to deprive
her of the allegiance of her people.

8

ii4 The Beautiful Queen

The marriage took place on August 20th, 1347
(old style), two years after the murder of Andrew ;
but in spite of this fact Joanna's detractors have
accused her of marrying before the year of her
widowhood had expired, whereas two years all
but a month had elapsed since Andrew's death.
According to many writers, this second marriage
was disapproved of by the other European courts,
who had apparently heard the scandalous reports
of the intimacy between Joanna and Louis and
were only too ready to put the worst interpretation
upon them. Of course it is quite possible that if
Joanna had been consulted about her first marriage,
she might have preferred the handsome, talented
Louis of Taranto to the half-imbecile, boorish
Hungarian prince to whom from motives of policy
the late King Robert had wedded her. But even
if this were so, it does not follow that there was
anything wrong in her relations with Louis, although
vicious tongues asserted that there was.

As Louis was her cousin, a Papal dispensation
was necessary to enable them to marry, and there
is a difference of opinion among historians as to
whether Joanna waited till this arrived, many
asserting that she did not do so ; but Villani says
that the Pope granted the dispensation, and at the
same time made Louis Regent of the kingdom,
but that the marriage caused " scandal to all zealous
Christians " — whose zeal, we venture ^o think, would

Joanna Marries a Second Time 115

have been much better employed in saving their
own souls than in criticising Joanna's conduct,
which in no way concerned them.

While the preparations were going on for the
marriage Louis of Hungary sent ambassadors to
the Papal court at Avignon, to demand the investi-
ture of the kingdom of Naples for himself, thus
excluding not only the reigning Queen, but also
her little son Canrobert, or Charobert, for the name
is spelt in both ways. Clement VI., however,
refused to receive his ambassadors because he was
an ally of the excommunicated Emperor Louis of
Bavaria, who had brought this punishment upon
himself, in the time of Pope Benedict XII., for
denying the Papal authority in Germany.

The Pope sent a message to the King of Hungary
to say that nothing criminal had been proved against
Joanna, and that even had she forfeited her throne
the claims of Andrew's son could not be set aside.
This was a great blow to Louis of Hungary, who
had believed that the Pope would favour his cause
at the expense of Joanna.

His next move made about the same time was
to lodge an accusation against Joanna and all the
Neapolitan princes of the murder of his brother
Andrew, at the court of Rienzi, now Tribune of
Rome. He had a twofold object in appealing to
Rienzi — first to enlist his sympathy and secure if
possible his help, and secondly to justify himself for

1 16 The Beautiful Queen

the attack upon the Queen of Naples and her allies
by casting a public slur upon their characters.

The royal family of Naples did not disdain to send
advocates to Rome to plead their cause and clear
themselves from the odious stigma this accusation
had cast upon them, and Rienzi listened to them,
seated upon his throne in great pomp ; but he put
off from day to day passing any judgment in the
matter, and left it undecided. His own downfall,
precipitated by the Count of Minervino, who ac-
companied the Hungarian ambassadors to Rome,
followed soon after, and the great Tribune was sent
a prisoner to the Pope at Avignon, where he was
cast into a dungeon.

In the month of May preceding the marriage of
Joanna and Louis, Nicholas the Hungarian, the for-
mer tutor of Andrew, had returned to Aquila, near
Naples, with large sums of money in his possession,
with which he proceeded to bribe the Neapolitans
whom he had won to his side on his previous
residence in the kingdom, to forsake the cause of
their lawful Queen and join that of the usurping
King of Hungary, and unfortunately he succeeded
in corrupting many of Joanna's subjects. He was
joined by a rebel baron who had previously estab-
lished himself at Aquila.

It was these traitors within the camp which made
the cause of Joanna and Louis of Taranto so des-
perate : if all their subjects had been faithful, it

Joanna Marries a Second Time 117

is believed that, notwithstanding the large army
the Hungarian King was bringing against the
Neapolitans, they would have been able to repel the
invasion.

The Duke of Durazzo joined the Queen's party
for a short time, because he had discovered that he
himself was a greater object of vengeance to Louis
of Hungary — who imputed Andrew's murder to
his hand — than even Joanna herself. He never-
theless contrived to injure her cause by his malice,
even when nominally fighting for her, and soon after
her marriage he raised the siege of Aquila and
retired to his own dominions.

The first division of the Hungarian army which
entered Naples in October was commanded by the
Bishop of the Five Churches, a natural brother of
the Hungarian King : he is described by Villani as
a wise and good soldier. It was the custom in the
Middle Ages for bishops to go to battle, and even
for popes to do so : our English Pope Adrian IV.
led his troops against his arch-enemy, Frederick
Barbarossa, so there was nothing unusual in this
proceeding.

Such was the disaffection in the country, and so
great was the terror Louis's threats of vengeance
had kindled among the people, that many castles
and towns surrendered to the Hungarian troops
without resistance, and some of the nobles went
over to the side of the enemy. One of the causes

1 18 The Beautiful Queen

of this treachery against Joanna was the unpopu-
larity of the princes. The people themselves were
indifferent to the royal cause partly because of
the rumours that the Queen was concerned in
the assassination of the late King, partly because of
the ambition and haughty demeanour of the royal
princes. Louis of Taranto, in spite of all these
discouragements, collected an army at Capua large
enough to stop the force of Louis of Hungary
when he entered the kingdom in December.

On reaching the frontier the King of Hungary
was met by the Papal legate, who commanded him
to retire in the name of the Pope, to whom the
suzerainty of Naples belonged. Furthermore, the
legate bade him cease from attempting any further
vengeance against the innocent Queen, saying that
two persons alone had been guilty of the murder, and
those two had already been executed. It is most
tantalising that the legate should not have mentioned
the names of these two guilty people, and thus
have solved the mystery of the murder of Andrew,
which must remain now undisclosed until the day
of judgment.

Louis had the insolence to reply to this remon-
strance by saying that he had come to take possession
of a kingdom which by right belonged to him
through his father Charles Martel (who, by the way,
must not be confused with his illustrious namesake,
the King of France who lived in the seventh century).

Joanna Marries a Second Time 119

The haughty Louis went on to say that he should
not trouble himself about his excommunication,
which he considered undeserved ; and as for the
murderers of his brother, a dozen rather than
two had been guilty of that crime. Having thus
disrespectfully delivered his soul, his army continued
to march to Naples via. Benevento, an ancient city
standing upon a hill and surrounded by mediaeval
walls, with a celebrated gate upon the north side
erected in the year a.d. 114, in memory of the
Roman Emperor Trajan, and called the Golden
Gate.

There were no standing armies in those days : the
cavalry were the mounted nobles and knights, whose
men-at-arms, bound under the feudal system to
fight for their feudal lord, were the infantry. The
mounted soldiers wore plate-armour and chain-mail,
but gunpowder was now coming into use, and with it
the wearing of armour decreased. We doubt very
much whether the Hungarians and Neapolitans used
gunpowder in this war, though the English did at
Crecy in the previous year for the first time. More
likely the half-civilised Hungarians were armed with
cross-bows, swords, pikes, javelins, battle-axes, and
sabres, while the foot soldiers were furnished with
any weapon which came handy — very often with
their flails ; but in spite of the indifferent equipment
they fought with the greatest ferocity, and the
Hungarians were more noted than the more civilised

120 The Beautiful Queen

Neapolitans for their fierce, barbarous methods of
war.

The Duke of Durazzo now basely betrayed Joanna
to the Hungarians. Though he was still fighting
nominally upon the Queen's side, he kept up a
secret correspondence with the Hungarian camp,
hoping ultimately to establish his wife, Maria, upon
her sister's throne. Durazzo knew that even if the
Hungarians should be victorious, which was still
doubtful, the Neapolitans would never submit for
long to their yoke. So he was playing a double
game ; and sad to say many of the Neapolitan
nobles followed his bad example, and courted the
favour of the Hungarian King.

Louis, desiring to strike terror into the Neapolitan
people, had had a banner made of black silk or
velvet, upon which was painted in most realistic
style and colours a sensational picture of the assassina-
tion of Andrew. This ghastly standard was borne
by a band of mourners robed in black to heighten
its effect.

Finding herself deserted by so many of her sub-
jects, and believing her cause to be hopeless, Joanna,
disheartened by the vile reports current about her,
determined to leave Naples and retire to Provence,
where she as Countess of that country was idolised
and certain of a welcome. Accordingly she called a
general council of all the principal and wisest men
of her kingdom, and with that eloquence for which

Joanna Marries a Second Time 121

she was so famed made a speech in which she
declared to them the resolution at which she had
arrived. She began by telling her audience of the
danger which threatened the capital from the
approach of the King of Hungary, who was now
close at its gates, and of her powerlessness to
resist him because of the calumnies which had
been spread abroad by her enemies, who without
any crime of hers had accused her of the most
atrocious iniquity, insensible of the pity which they
should have felt for their Queen, who in the
earliest bloom of youth had been the victim of
misfortune.

She then went on to say that in order to make
known her innocence to the Vicar of Christ on earth,
as it was known to God in heaven, and to force the
whole world to acknowledge it also, she intended to
go to Avignon and plead her cause before the Holy
Father, whose absolution she would beg.

She continued : " Only against me is the anger of
the King of Hungary directed, me whom he holds as
the murderess of his brother Andrew. You I know
will take my part ; you will not refuse to defend me
and my rights — if not for my own merits, at least
for the love you bore my grandfather, the late King
Robert. I know this ; but innocent blood shall not
flow in a fruitless struggle. I yield my rights for
the public good. I absolve you all, both nobles
and people, from your oath of allegiance to me. I

i22 The Beautiful Queen

command you to make no resistance to the King of
Hungary. Submit yourselves to him and disarm
his anger by obedience. Deliver to him the keys of
all the towns and castles in my kingdom, without
waiting for the summons of herald or trumpet.

"I leave you behind me my most precious pledge,
my little son Charobert. May his innocent smile be
your advocate, and soften the angry monarch. To
me, the persecuted Queen, shall distant France give
a place of refuge until the solemn judgment of
God's viceregent on earth shall absolve me from this
shameful reproach, and then full of honour I will
return to my country as Queen, which I now leave
with a broken heart, but a pure conscience."

This touching speech, delivered with all the grace
not only of the most ilovely woman of her day, but
also of one of the most accomplished orators, moved
the assembly to tears. But the majestic young Queen
had sufficient self-control to command her own
emotion, and sat there sad but dignified while both
burghers and warriors were weeping at her feet ;
and the solemn silence with which they had at first
listened was now broken by cheers and exclamations,
imploring her to remain and dare every risk, the
nobles vowing to lay down their lives for her and
her children.

The age in which Joanna lived was the age of
chivalry, so it is not surprising that this speech of
one of the most fascinating woman that the world

Joanna Marries a Second Time 123

has seen should have won the hearts of her hearers,
for devotion to beauty at this time of day wasjcarried
to a degree of enthusiasm bordering on madness.

It was not only the younger barons and knights
and citizens who were moved by Joanna's beauty
and eloquence ; the old sage councillors were also
touched. They not only applauded her resolution
and approved of her plans, but they too vowed not
to rest until she was able to return, and they placed
their lives and fortunes at her service.

The journey from Naples to Avignon, in days
before the use of steam had been discovered, was
slow and by no means sure, for as the greater part of
the way was a sea-voyage the travellers were at the
mercy of wind and waves.

On January 15th, 1347 (old style), the Queen em-
barked for Provence, taking with her her household,
a few most faithful friends, among them Nicholas
Acciajuoli, and the Princess of Taranto, her sister-
in-law, wife of Robert, Prince of Taranto, Louis's
elder brother, and her celebrated diamonds and other
jewels.

Three galleys were the means of transport. A
galley was usually a three-masted vessel with one
deck, supplied with oars, the number of which varied ;
a Venetian galley had sixty-four, and probably
Joanna's had not less. They were rowed generally
by criminals : hence the expression, " sent to the
galleys." When Joanna reached the sea it is said

124 The Beautiful Queen

that every man and woman in the city was at
the harbour, to catch a glimpse of the young
Queen. As many as could get near enough to do
so kissed her hand before she embarked, and both
men and women wept bitterly as she left the shore,
and stood on the beach watching as long as there
was a sign of the disappearing galleys.

The voyage, owing to the ignorance of nautical
science of the times, was a dangerous one, and as
it was performed in mid-winter the Mediterranean
was quite capable of giving them a very rough time ;
and as soon as the vessels were out of sight the
crowd besieged the churches, and, kneeling round the
altars, invoked every saint — especially Our Lady and
St. Januarius, the patron saint of Naples — to protect
their beloved sovereign and grant her a safe voyage
and a speedy return to her country.

As Joanna sailed past the isolated rock in the
bay, crowned with the gloomy Castel del Ovo, her
mother's heart must have been pierced with grief
and fear, for there she had left her little son
Charobert — now at the interesting age of two, just
beginning to prattle — with his guardians chosen by
the Pope, who had selected this casdc as the safest
place for the heir to the crown. The poor young
mother was destined never to see her child again ;
but she could not know this when she left him,
although she must under the circumstances have felt
very anxious.

Joanna Marries a Second Time 125

Her husband, Louis of Taranto, was with her
for three days, and on the 18th he landed on the
Italian shore, which was neutral ground.

The Princess of Taranto, whom her husband had
sent to her father, the Duke of Bourbon, as Naples
was in such a disturbed state, also landed here with
Nicholas Acciajuoli, who, bent himself on an
important mission to Florence, was to escort the
Princess thither ; and now Joanna was left almost
alone to proceed to Nice, where she landed two days
later, intending to travel the rest of the way to
Avignon by land. But on reaching Achisi she met
Raymond de Baux, Prince of Orange, who was her
second cousin, the Count de Soult, and some other
Provencal barons, who were evidently on the look-
out for her, having heard from the Hungarians that
she was coming to Avignon. To her amazement,
they seized her suite and sent them all back as
prisoners to Nice, and led Joanna herself, with great
respect and courtesy, but as a State prisoner, to Aix,
the capital of Provence, where they lodged her in
the now deserted palace of her ancestors, the ancient
counts of Aix.

Orange, we must explain, was a tiny principality,
the chief town of which was about thirteen miles
north of Avignon, and called Orange ; it was at this
time an independent State, and remained so until
the sixteenth century. The Barons de Baux had
been the reigning princes of Orange since the

I2 6 The Beautiful Queen

eleventh century ; they were constantly lighting for
the titles of Count of Provence and King of Aries.

The reason for this extraordinary reception of
Joanna from these Provencal barons, who were so
loyal to the Angevine family, and supposed to idolise
their beautiful Countess, the Queen of the Two
Sicilies, was the reports spread by her enemy, the
King of Hungary, to the effect that she intended
to dispose of her Provencal dominions in order to
obtain the means to carry on the war against
Louis of Hungary.

For this purpose, the emissaries of Louis had
declared, she was travelling to Avignon in order to
meet there her cousin John, Duke of Normandy,
who in 1358 succeeded his father, Philip de Valois,
as John I. of France, and sell her Provencal posses-
sions to him. The Provencals, who were a proud
race and, as we have said, devoted to the Angevine
line, were determined to stop this sale at all costs,
and so seized Joanna and confined her as a state
prisoner at Aix, whither they conducted her with
all courtesy and respect.

She was treated as a Queen in this gloomy,
fortress-like castle, but she was not allowed to see
any one unless her attendants were present. This
was in order to prevent her from making any
attempt to negotiate the sale of Provence. In this
desolate building, formerly the scene of revelry and
magnificence, whose now silent walls once rang with

Joanna Marries a Second Time 127

the songs of the Troubadours, we must now leave
the unfortunate Queen while we relate what happened
in her absence from Naples.

Little did Joanna think when she set out for
Provence, where she as Countess was so revered and
loved, that this would be the reception she would
meet with on stepping on to Provencal soil.

CHAPTER IX
The King of Hungary's Vengeance

TDEFORE leaving her kingdom Joanna had cora-
*-* manded that the same governors should
continue to hold their offices in all the towns and
fortresses during her absence, so that on her return
she might find her country in no worse state than
when she left it. She had confidence in those to
whom she had entrusted the government to safe-
guard her interests, and she trusted that by ordering
the gates of every town to be thrown open to the
King of Hungary, and no resistance offered to his
army, his anger would be pacified, and that he would
not carry his threats of vengeance any further into
execution.

Aversa was the place to which the special vengeance
of Louis was directed, and thither his troops were
advancing with threatening steps. Fear went before ;
all trembled at the report of his approach. One

town, Sulmone, in the north of the kingdom, refused

128

The King of Hungary's Vengeance 129

to obey Joanna's command to surrender, and opposed
him, but he took it and sacked it, and continued his
march.

The Neapolitan princes of the blood, hearing of
the resistance of Sulmone, sent an embassy to Louis
begging him to grant them a safe-conduct, and a
written declaration that he considered them innocent
of the murder of Andrew. The Hungarian King
granted both these requests, and the princes, trusting
in his honour and chivalry, advanced in a body to
meet him at Aversa, that scene of one tragedy
destined to be the scene of another scarcely less
terrible drama.

Louis had assumed the title of King of Jerusalem
and Sicily already, though both belonged to Joanna ;
but the princes, to appease his wrath, recognised
these titles by performing their homage according
to the etiquette of the times, by kissing him on the
mouth, and then they all sat down to a meal. By
virtue of these two acts, either of which was con-
sidered sufficient to ensure their safety, they had
declared themselves his vassals, and he had virtually
pledged himself to protect them ; and by all the
laws of chivalry, then held in the most sacred
esteem, their lives and persons were inviolable.

The King of Hungary received them apparently
as friends, but after the banquet he and the other
Hungarians all armed themselves, while the Nea-
politans were defenceless. In the courtyard of the

9

i3° The Beautiful Queen

castle where they were all assembled, both Neapolitans
and Hungarians mounted their horses, and Louis
announced his intention of proceeding with them
to Naples ; but as they started, with the Duke of
Durazzo riding by the side of the Hungarian
monarch, the latter turned to Charles and said in
an ominous tone, which struck terror into Durazzo's
heart :

" Lead us to where my brother Andrew was
killed."

Durazzo, noting the ferocity which shone in the
King's eyes, answered :

" Don't trouble yourself about that. I was not
there."

The accounts of what followed vary. One says
that Louis, on reaching Aversa, at once took
prisoners the Duke of Durazzo and all the princes
who had remained in Naples, including the little
Charobert, whom this writer says the Neapolitans
had brought with them in his cradle — which, seeing
he was two years old, seems improbable. Carraccioli,
the author in question, says that Louis then ordered
the Duke of Durazzo to be beheaded on the same
spot on which Andrew was murdered, and then kept
the others whom he had arrested chained in irons
most strictly until he could send them to Hungary.

We prefer to follow Villani's version, which tells
us that Louis, persisting in his demand to be shown
the spot where Andrew was murdered, was led to

The King of Hungary's Vengeance 131

the Celestine monastery, where they all dismounted
and proceeded to the castle, going up to the gallery
in which Andrew was first seized, and then on to the
balcony from which he was hanged and thrown over
into the garden.

When they reached this spot the fury of the King
knew no bounds. He turned to Durazzo in a
transport of rage, and said :

" You have been a false traitor, and compassed
the death of your lord my brother, and intrigued in
the Papal court together with your uncle, the
Cardinal of Perigord, who, at your request, delayed
and endeavoured to prevent his coronation, which
should, as was becoming, have been performed by
the sanction of the Pope, and this delay was the
cause of his death.

" With fraud and deceit you obtained a dis-
pensation from the Pope to take your cousin, his
sister-in law, to wife, in order that, by the death of
him and the Queen Joanna, his wife, you might
become King in their stead.

" Moreover, you have been in arms with that
traitor Louis, Prince of Taranto, our rebel, who has
done as you have done, and with fraud and sacrilege
has married that iniquitous and adulterous woman,
traitorous to her King and husband, who was
Andrew, our brother, and therefore it is fitting
that you should die where you caused him to die."

Durazzo vehemently protested his innocence, and

*3 2 The Beautiful Queen

implored the King's mercy, but in vain. Louis now
produced the letters to Charles Artus, written in
Durazzo's name and sealed with his seal, concocting
the assassination of Andrew, and then demanded
how he could excuse himself.

Without giving the unhappy Durazzo time to
examine the documents in question, which are con-
sidered to be of very doubtful authenticity — for
Charles Artus was not yet taken, so it is not easy
to see how they could have come into Louis's
possession, and Durazzo's seal was easily imitated,
as it was well known all over Europe — the angry
King called forward one of his suite, who stabbed
the unarmed Duke in the breast, while another
Hungarian seized him by the hair. A second stab
in the throat, which partially severed his head from
his body, killed him.

Nothing can justify the conduct and treachery of
Louis in this murder. It was a gross breach of
faith and trust, it was a dastardly action, cowardly
in the extreme ; and whether Durazzo was guilty
of Andrew's death or not it was unjust, because
he was murdered without any trial or examination,
or witness against him except these very doubtful
letters.

Under pretence of zeal to punish his brother's
murderers, Louis was bent on obtaining the crown
of the Two Sicilies for himself ; and as Durazzo was
certainly aiming at the same object, he was a special

The King of Hungary's Vengeance 133

object of hatred to Louis, who had not forgiven him
for stealing his bride, Maria of Sicily, from him.
But, fortunately for Joanna, his zeal outran his
discretion, for this foul murder, coupled with his
treachery, revolted the feelings of all classes, rich and
poor, against him, and a reaction set in in favour
of the Queen.

Not content with murdering Durazzo, he threw
the body over the fatal balcony and forbade any one
to bury it till he gave permission, thus denying his
victim, whom he had already deprived of the last
Sacraments, Christian burial.

He seized all the other princes who had been his
guests an hour before, and threw them into the
Castle of Aversa as prisoners for the present, until
he could make other arrangements for taking them
to Hungary. He then set out for Naples, but he
was met at Melita, which is half-way between the
city and Aversa, by a deputation of the citizens, who
saluted him with the greatest reverence — of which
he scorned to take the least notice, but rode into
Naples as a conqueror, his terrible banner carried
before him, his helmet on his head, refusing to pass
under the canopy which the chief nobility brought
out to hold over him.

He also declined to meet the governors of the
city and the representatives of the nobility, but
demanded the keys of the city to be given up to
him, and sent them to Hungary in token of con-

i34 The Beautiful Queen

quest. He then let loose his soldiers with orders
to destroy all the palaces of the royal family, and
the terrified Neapolitans feared he was going to
pillage the whole city ; but this he forbade his soldiers
to do, his chief wrath being directed against all the
royal princes.

Louis then held another inquiry — or rather in-
quisition, for torture was the means employed to
get evidence — into Andrew's death, and many nobles
were executed as the result of these mock trials ;
the real object of which was to obtain incriminating
evidence against Joanna, and to remove all the
barons who were opposed to the Hungarian cause.
The first object was completely defeated, for neither
death nor torture could extort a word of evidence
against the Queen ; another proof of her innocence.

Louis now took possession of little Canrobert,
Joanna's child, whom he loaded with caresses and
then sent him to Hungary with the other princes.
The child did not live very long after reaching
Hungary, and it was far better for Joanna that he
died there ; for had his death taken place in Naples,
her slanderers would have said that he had been
murdered to make room for the children of her
second marriage. The other royal princes were
sent, chained, to the Castle of Wisgrade, which is
described as a roomy prison, but " where there
was little to have and less to spend."

In the meanwhile Maria of Sicily, the young

The King of Hungary's Vengeance 135

Duchess of Durazzo, was waiting in the Castel
Nuovo to meet the Hungarian King, whom she
expected to return with her husband, who had gone
to meet him. Her two children were with her
when a messenger arrived to inform her of the
King of Hungary's treachery, and the horrible
murder of the husband of her youth, whom she
loved passionately, and who had saved her from
marrying Louis of Hungary, whom she hated. On
hearing the ghastly news, and knowing Louis was
now on his way from Aversa — that place so fatal to
her and her sister Joanna — to her place of retreat,
where she dreaded he would tear her children from
her arms and send them prisoners to Hungary,
while what form his vengeance might take against
her who had jilted him she did not know, she
immediately left the Castel Nuovo and took refuge
for the rest of the day in some neighbouring
buildings.

Here she assumed the disguise of a beggar,
laying aside all signs of her riches and high rank,
and as soon as it was dark she issued forth with
her two babies, and fled for protection to the
neighbouring monastery of Santa Croce. We can
well imagine the sensation her arrival must have
caused among the monks, when the young Duchess
of Durazzo, who was second in rank only to the
Queen, knocked at their postern-gate disguised as
a poor beggar, carrying two babies in her arms, the

136 The Beautiful Queen

elder of whom could not speak, while it was plainly
visible that a third child would soon be added to
her family. The monks could not have denied
shelter even to the beggar she was counterfeiting nor
did they hesitate to take in the Duchess ; though
her presence was a source of the greatest danger to
them, for if Louis had discovered it he would
undoubtedly have sacked the monastery.

The monks kept her for a few days while Louis
was making a strict search for her, and had she
fallen into his hands would no doubt have im-
prisoned her, though for the sake of the unborn
child he might have spared her life, at any rate
until that was born. During these few days a plan
was made for her escape by a few friends and the
monks, who decided that an attempt must be made
to send her to her sister in Provence. Apparently
the news of the Queen's imprisonment had not
reached the monastery or Naples. Maria was to
learn on her arrival in Avignon, if she ever got
there, of Joanna's captivity.

The disguise of a beggar was not considered
sufficient for one so well known as the Duchess
of Durazzo, so she put on the habit of one of the
monks, and with a few faithful friends managed,
after undergoing many hardships and dangers by
sea and by land, to reach Aix, where we left Joanna
confined.

The reason of Joanna's captivity at Aix was

The King of Hungary's Vengeance 137

partly due to the affection of her Provencal subjects,
partly to the false reports which the Hungarians
had circulated about her among the nobility of
Provence, to the effect that she was going to
Avignon to endeavour to sell her Provencal
dominions in order to get money to continue the
war against the King of Hungary. To prevent
this sale, which neither their pride nor their affection
for the ancient Angevine rulers could brook, they
subjected Joanna to a captivity which they had the
grace to make as pleasant as possible under the
circumstances, and in which she was treated with
all the respect due to her as Queen and Countess
of Provence, and we are told also with the utmost
courtesy.

Maria, the widowed Duchess of Durazzo, was
only eighteen when with her two little baby girls,
Joanna and Agnes, she reached her sister, the
captive Queen, who was separated from her own
little son. The meeting between the two sisters
was no doubt very touching, when after so many
perils Maria at last found herself in a place of safety,
although that place was a prison.

Both these young widows had lost their husbands
by a violent death, and, strange to say, Andrew
and Charles of Durazzo had been murdered on
the same spot, and the same cruel enemy was
pursuing them. Joanna, generously forgetting that
Charles of Durazzo had been a traitor to her, took

138 The Beautiful Queen

upon herself the care and education of his children,
and when the third child was born adopted her as
her daughter. No doubt the two little babies of
Maria were a source of amusement and consolation
to both sisters in their captivity, and to some extent
atoned to Joanna for the loss of her boy, of whose
fate she was so uncertain.

We must now see what had become of Joanna's
husband and Nicholas Acciajuoli, who, when they
left Joanna, had intended to proceed by different
ways to Florence, where Angelo Acciajuoli, the
brother of Nicholas, was bishop, in order to enlist
his services on Joanna's behalf, for he was a man
of great influence in the Papal Court.

The fate of Louis and Joanna was, it may be said,
in the Pope's hands. If he judged them guilty of
the murder of Andrew, he had the power to send
them not only to prison, but to the scaffold ; while,
on the other hand, if he pronounced them innocent,
and took them under his fatherly protection, Joanna
might recover her fair fame and her kingdom.

It was therefore of vital importance to both
Joanna and Louis to leave no stone unturned to
procure a favourable verdict at the Court of Avignon,
and they were most fortunate in being able to
approach such a powerful advocate as the Bishop
of Florence with such an influential friend as his
brother Nicholas to plead for them.

Angelo Acciajuoli once proposed to pay Petrarch

The King of Hungary's Vengeance 139

a visit in his hermitage at Vaucluse, to see him and
the celebrated fountain, said never to have been
fathomed, which is the source of the River Sorgia,
and rises in the midst of a gloomy cavern at the
foot of a huge rock. Petrarch, highly delighted at
the prospect of receiving so honourable a guest,
scoured the neighbourhood to obtain delicacies to
set before him when he should arrive.

The Bishop, who was on his way from Avignon
to Florence, was expected to the midday dejeuner
at twelve o'clock. Everything was ready at the
appointed time ; twelve o'clock struck, but no
Bishop appeared, and the poet, who wanted his
luncheon, grew impatient, and while waiting wrote
some lines to the Prior of the neighbouring
monastery to the following effect :

" There is no more faith in the world. We can
depend on no one ; the more I see the more I feel
this. Even your Bishop, upon whom I thought I
could rely, he deceives me. He promised to dine
with me to-day. I have done for him what I never
did for any one. I have upset my house to treat
him well. He fears, no doubt, that he will meet
with the repast of a poet, and deigns not to visit
the place where the great King Robert, where
cardinals and princes have been : some to see the
fountain, others to visit me. But if I am unworthy
to receive such a guest, it seems to me that he is
still more unworthy for breaking his word."

i4° The Beautiful Queen

By the time these lines were written a great
commotion was heard outside the hermitage, and
the good Bishop arrived, having been delayed on
the way.

But to return to Louis of Taranto and his tutor.
When they reached the Florentine frontier they
were met by an embassy from the chief magistrates,
forbidding them to enter Florence, lest by so doing
the inhabitants should suffer from the vengeance of
Louis of Hungary. The Guelph party in Florence
took no part in this protest, and were highly
indignant at it, for they owed much both to the
relations of Joanna and to the uncle and brother
of Louis, who had laid down their lives for them
in battle.

But though the Florentines had received so many
favours from Joanna's father and King Robert, as
well as from Louis's relations, the chief citizens
decided it would not do to run the risk of incurring
the anger of the Hungarian King, so Louis was
obliged to take refuge for ten days in the Castle
of Valdepeso, which belonged to a chief of the
Acciajuoli family.

This was all the more galling to the Guelphs
because a month before, when Philip Gonzago of
Mantua, who had been fighting on the side of the
Hungarians, passed through Florence on his way
from Naples he was received with the honours they
wished to show to Prince Louis of Taranto.

The King of Hungary's Vengeance 141

Nicholas Acciajuoli was, however, too faithful and
too clever a friend to his pupil, Louis, and to his
sovereign, Joanna, not to find a way to help her ;
so he chartered two armed galleys from Genoa, and
on board them he and Louis sailed for Provence.
But on nearing the shore they found they could not
land with safety either at Marseilles or Nice, and
they heard the bad news that Joanna was in
captivity, the Barons in open rebellion, and Louis's
Hungarian agents very busy doing all the mis-
chief they could. Neither Louis of Taranto nor
Acciajuoli were men to be easily baffled ; they were
determined to reach Avignon by hook or by crook,
so they sailed past the Provencal shore to Aigues
Morte, which is on French soil, and landed there,
and, following the course of the Rh6ne, arrived at
Villeneuve, on the opposite bank of the river to
Avignon. Arrived here, all they had to do was
to cross the celebrated Bridge of St. Benezet at
Avignon. Louis, however, thought it more prudent
to remain at Villeneuve until he knew what kind of
a reception he would meet with at the Papal court,
while Acciajuoli and his brother, the Bishop of
Florence, ^who had joined them at Valdepeso, went
to see Clement VI. and consult with him as to
what was to be done to reinstate Joanna on her
throne.

CHAPTER X

Joanna Pleads before the Pope and Cardinals

THE city of Avignon has many claims to
celebrity. The fact that it was the chosen
place of residence of the seven French Popes, from
1309 to 1378, would in itself be sufficient to invest
it with an interest second only to Rome itself, but
it has other claims to fame. It was, as we have
already said, the home of Petrarch's Laura, and in
one of its churches he first met her. Its streets and
gardens were traversed by the poet and his beloved
lady, and in another of its churches is her tomb.
During the residence of the Popes it was visited by
most of the various European sovereigns, by their
ambassadors, and, especially during the reign of
Clement VI., it was resorted to by the most learned
men in Europe.

In the seventeenth century the celebrated Crillon
died there and was buried there. He was one of

the most renowned soldiers of the sixteenth cen-

142

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 143

tury, and distinguished himself during the reigns
of five French kings, and was the first officer to
receive the title of Colonel-General of the French
infantry. Henry IV. of France always spoke of
him as " le brave Crillon," and after the battle of
Arques wrote on the battlefield this pregnant dis-
patch to him :

" Hang thyself, brave Crillon. We have fought
at Arques and thou wast not there."

Another very celebrated man was a native of
Avignon, the Chevalier Folard, who was born there
in 1669, and died there in 1752. He was one of
the greatest tacticians the world has seen. He took
part in all the wars at the end of the reign of Louis
XIV., and supplied the generals under whom he
served with plans of defence ; he wrote several
works on war-tactics and defence, all of course now
hopelessly obsolete, but most valuable at the time
they were published.

At the close of his life he joined a Jansenist
sect of fanatics known in France as the " Convul-
sionnaires," whose vagaries gave rise to a celebrated
witty couplet. They used to visit the tomb of the
deacon Francois de Paris, one of their members,
who had died in the odour of sanctity, and there
they fell into all sorts of convulsions, and pretended
that miracles took place in this churchyard of St.
Medard. At last they became such a nuisance that
the authorities were obliged to order the cemetery

1 44 The Beautiful Queen

to be closed. Whereupon some wag wrote upon
the gate :

"De par le Roi defense a Dieu,
De faire miracle en ce lieu."

Another of these sects which sprang up some
years later, about 1373, was the Dancers ; they were
the offspring of the Flagellants, and originated in
Aix-la-Chapelle. They spread throughout Liege,
Hainault, and Flanders. These fanatics fell sud-
denly into fits of dancing. Men and women joined
hands, and danced violently till they were almost
suffocated, when they fell to the ground and then
said they were favoured with visions. The priests
declared they were possessed, and exorcised them. 1

In the year 1226 the town of Avignon was
nearly destroyed by order of the Papal legate, sent
there to oppose the Count of Toulouse, who had
favoured the cause of the Albigeois, and at the time
of Joanna's visit it had not recovered from the
punishment inflicted upon it, so that like Rome it
presented a striking mixture of great luxury side
by side with the direst poverty. Among the low,
ill-built houses of the natives stood the magnificent
palaces of the Cardinals, and perched upon a grand
rock above the glorious river Rh6ne was the
fortress-like but most splendid of all these mansions,
the majestic palace of the Popes, which still survives,
though now used as a prison.

1 Mosheim, vol. i.

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 145

Petrarch, who was most indignant at the luxury
of the Papal Court, thus comments upon these
buildings. " What a shame to see these people
raising magnificent palaces, resplendent with gold
and superb towers which threaten the skies in this
new Babylon, whilst the capital of the world lies
in ruins ! "

The poet as an Italian could not tolerate with
patience the removal of the Holy See from Rome
to Avignon, and with his usual exaggerated but
picturesque language he inveighs against it.

In one of his letters called the " Mysteries " he
thus describes the licentiousness of Avignon : " All
that they say of Assyrian and Egyptian Babylon,
of the four Labyrinths, of the Avernean and Tar-
tarean Lakes is nothing in comparison with this
hell. We have here a Nimrod powerful on the
earth, and a mighty hunter before the Lord, who
attempts to scale heaven with raising his superb
towers. A Semiramis with her quiver, a Cambyses
more extravagant than the Cambyses of old. All
that is vile and execrable is assembled in this
place. There is no clue to lead you out of this
labyrinth, neither that of Dedalus nor Ariadne ;
the only means of escaping is by the influence
of gold.

" In this place reign the successors of poor fisher-
men, who have forgotten their origin. They march
covered with gold and purple, proud of the spoils

10

J46 The Beautiful Queen

of princes and of the people. Instead of those
little boats in which they gained their living on the
Lake of Gennesareth, they inhabit superb palaces.
To the most simple repasts have succeeded the
most sumptuous feasts ; and where the apostles went
on foot covered only with sandals are now seen
insolent satraps mounted on horses ornamented
with gold, and champing golden bits. Poor old
fishermen ! For whom have you laboured ? O
times ! O manners ! "

It was under the pontificate of Clement VI., to
whom he alluded as " Nimrod," that Petrarch wrote
this, and that the luxury and licentiousness of
Avignon reached their highest point ; for Clement
VI. was a man of most gentle temper, very
easily led, most generous, and very fond, it must
be confessed, of luxury. He liked the society of
ladies, and they were admitted to his palace and
formed a court there, at the head of which was
Cicely, Duchess of Turenne — Petrarch's " Semiramis
with her quiver." She married the son of Alphonsus
IV., King of Aragon, and became Duchess of
Turenne in her own right by the death of her
brother, the Viscount, in 1340.

This woman was excessively proud and imperious,
and very cunning also, and managed to obtain a
very strong influence over the Pope, and amassed
great riches from all hands. She was the special
object of Petrarch's hatred. She lived in the

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 147

greatest splendour, and completely dominated
the Court of Avignon, and disposed of a
great deal of the patronage attached to the Papal
Court by virtue of her friendship with Clement,
who allowed himself to be influenced by her;
but there is not the slightest ground for the
suggestions of some unscrupulous writers, who
have calumniated the Holy Father by suggesting
there was more than friendship existing between
them.

The scenery round Avignon is most varied ; the
deep blue waters of the Rh6ne rush past the lordly
palaces, and receive the Durance, which winds
about on the other side of the city. Just below
it wide avenues of elms surround the town. The
land is very rich : vines crown the hills, olive-trees
cover the meadows, while islands in the great river,
magnificent trees, and rich fields all combine to
make a fairylike prospect.

The walls round the city were built in 1358,
but they are more ornamental than suitable for pur-
poses of defence, and are flanked with square towers.
The mystic number seven regulated everything in
Avignon : there were seven gates in these walls,
seven churches, seven monasteries, seven nunneries,
seven colleges, seven parishes, seven hospitals,
and seven Popes lived there in succession — though
this last was by accident or coincidence, not by
design. We must not forget to mention the cele-

H8 The Beautiful Queen

brated Bridge of St Ben6zet * which spans the
Rhone at Avignon, on the opposite side of which
stands the town of Villeneuve, where on their
arrival Louis of Taranto remained, while Nicholas
Acciajuoli and his brother, the Bishop of Florence,
went to Avignon to obtain an audience of the
Pope. Clement is said to have received them with
his usual courtesy and affability, and no doubt
entertained them at one of his regal banquets, for
he was famed for the delicacy of his table as well
as for the sumptuousness of his furniture and table
appointments.

His first step upon hearing their errand, and
learning of the imprisonment of Joanna, was to
send for the Duke of Normandy and prevail upon
him to leave Provence, and return immediately to
his own dominions, to show the Provencals that
Joanna was not about to sell Provence to him ; this
quieted their fears, and paved the way for Joanna's
release.

There was living at Avignon at this time a
relation of Joanna's, namely, the Due de Berri,
who on hearing of her captivity also exerted him-
self to obtain her release, working most zealously
on her behalf. He went round to all the principal

1 St. Benezet was originally a shepherd living in the second half
of the twelfth century. He built this bridge, and was the founder
of an order called " les Freres Pontifes," or the Makers of Bridges ;
he was also the patron saint of engineers, and of the city of Avignon.
He died in 1184.

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 149

nobles in turn, and assured them on his word as a
prince that there was no truth in the report spread
by the Hungarians, that Joanna was about to sell
her Provencal dominions.

These measures prevailed. The Barons, at last
convinced that they had been deceived by the
malice of the Hungarian emissaries of Louis of
Hungary, went to Aix and assured the captive
Queen of their fidelity, removed all the restrictions
under which she had been placed, and renewed
their oaths of allegiance to her. Joanna then
selected a new court from the nobles of Provence,
and prepared to leave Aix for Avignon to plead
there her cause before the Pope. She knew no
rest until this object had been fulfilled and her
character cleared in the eyes of all Christendom
from the odious charges brought against her.

Her captivity had lasted nearly two months : she
was taken prisoner on January 20th, and on the 1 5th
of the following March she made her triumphant
and most magnificent entry into Avignon, the streets
of which were hung with silk and cloth-of-gold
and of silver, and decorated with garlands of flowers
for the occasion. The balconies of the splendid
palaces and houses of the rich were filled with
ladies dressed in ceremonial robes of such costli-
ness that they were handed down from generation
to generation.

Here we may mention a sumptuary law in exist-

150 The Beautiful Queen

ence in Provence and France at this time, by which
it was prohibited to all women below a certain fixed
rank to wear silk, gold, furs, pearls, or other precious
jewels, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
not even the relations of Popes, or the wives and
daughters of marshals and barons were exempt from
it. These laws were made to repress the luxury and
extravagance of the age, especially among the lower
classes primarily : but they afterwards, in England
and Scotland, became protective in character.
Edward III. in 1336 passed a most arbitrary
sumptuary law in England, limiting the number of
courses his subjects might take at one meal ; but
this law was never enforced from the very be-
ginning, and yet it remained on the Statute Book
until 1856.

Laura's nobility is said to be proved, if proof
were needed, by the fact that she possessed some
silk gloves embroidered in gold — one of which she
once dropped and Petrarch picked it up, but was
not permitted to retain it even for a minute. Unless
Laura had been of the requisite high rank, she
would not have been allowed to possess these gloves,
nor to have worn the other magnificent clothing for
which she was famed.

Of course the Queen of the Two Sicilies and
Countess of Provence was exempt from all sumptuary
laws, and entered Avignon with all the pomp and
insignia of royalty. It must be confessed that

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 151

Joanna was very fond of purple and fine clothing ;
and if it be considered a fault in a woman of
her exalted rank to be clad in magnificent robes
on grand State occasions, then Joanna was guilty
of that fault, of which much has been made by her
adverse critics.

She entered Avignon, seated on a milk-white
palfrey caparisoned with purple and gold, wearing
a robe of crimson velvet, and over it a mantle
of purple velvet, embroidered all over with the
fleur-de-lis in gold thread, and bordered with the
regal ermine ; on her shoulders glittered the crosses
of the kingdom of Jerusalem — one of her titles being,
it will be remembered, Empress of Jerusalem — and
in her hands she bore her orb and sceptre. Over
her head was carried the canopy of State, orna-
mented with gold fringes, and its four gilt poles
borne in turns by the highest noblemen in her
kingdom. These canopy-bearers wore coronets upon
their heads and splendid attire.

The Queen, who was the admiration of all
beholders, her beauty calling forth shouts of
delight, was accompanied by her husband, Louis
of Taranto, who must have felt intensely proud
of his young wife and sovereign, and also
by Nicholas Acciajuoli and his brother the
Bishop of Florence, and by a large escort of
her Ultramontane knights, with their ladies all
dressed in great splendour. Some of these ladies

15 2 The Beautiful Queen

were carried in litters ; others sat on side-saddles
made in the shape of a chair, which could not
have had a very equestrian appearance. Joanna
was an excellent horsewoman, and may have dis-
pensed with this arrangement ; her palfrey was led
by two knights of princely birth.

As the procession passed along the narrow crooked
streets it was delayed by the most cosmopolitan of
crowds which thronged the city, attracted thither
from all parts of Christendom by the presence of
the Pope, and it is not likely that in those days
crowds were regulated as they are in twentieth-
century London.

The convent of the Ursulines had long been the
usual place of residence of the sovereigns of Naples
when they visited Avignon, and here they stopped
for the Queen to alight to take the customary re-
freshment of wine and confectionery, and also to
give the Cardinals time to meet in the Consistory
Court at the Papal palace, before which she was now
about to appear and plead her cause.

This court was held in one of the magnificently
proportioned halls in the Pope's palace. It was
arranged with a throne of crimson and gold for the
Pope, raised above all the other seats, at one end,
and round this, arranged in a semicircle, were seated
the Cardinals, on a lower level ; they were all
vested in their robes of scarlet silk, with their gold
crosses upon their breasts and their jewelled

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 153

episcopal rings on their right| hands. The Pope
is said by one author, from whom we are now
quoting, to have worn the triple tiara. This is a
mistake. The Papal tiara at this time was only a
double crown ; the third crown was not added until
the pontificate of Urban V.

The same writer says Clement was attired in
dazzling white robes of silver tissue. This may
have been the case ; but white was not adopted
by the Popes as the colour of their robes until
the time of the Dominican Pope St. Pius V., who
introduced it because it was then the custom for
a Pope to wear robes of the same colour as his
habit if he had been a member of a religious order
before his election, and Pius V. was a Dominican,
whose habit is white. Clement VI. was not a
member of any religious order, so he was at liberty
to wear what coloured robes he chose. He was
of high rank, belonging to the ancient family of
Roger, and loved refinement and splendour, and
is described as having more of the chivalry of the
knight than the austerity of the priest about him.
He was very fond of hunting, and his stud was
celebrated all over Europe, while his stables were
most luxurious.

Popes at that time wore white linen slippers, with
a cross embroidered in gold upon them, which it
has ever, until the present pontificate, been the
custom of the faithful to kiss on being presented

154 The Beautiful Queen

to the Pope. In mediaeval days the cross was
often used in dress to procure marks of homage,
which would have been denied without it.

A story is told of one of the Doges of Venice
in this connection. In 1363 the father of the
reigning Doge chose to go bareheaded rather than
uncover his head to his son, whereupon the Doge
had a cross placed in front of his hat, and his father
then took to his headgear again, and when he met
his son took it off saying, " It is not him I salute,
but the cross."

The same idea, only more forcibly expressed, is
present in an anecdote relating to the late Tsar of
Russia. It is the custom on Easter Day in Russia
for all the congregation to kiss the hand of the
priest on leaving the church after Mass. On one
occasion the Tsar was staying at one of his country
palaces at Easter, and went to Mass in a small
village church. The priest, who was a peasant, was
terrified when the Tsar was about to kiss his hand
as he left the church, and drew back, saying he
was unworthy of such an honour. The Tsar gave
him a most scathing rebuke, saying, as he insisted
upon obeying the ritual of his Church, " It is not
you I kiss, but Jesus Christ."

Joanna was led into this consistory between two
cardinals, and followed by a crowd of friends and
vassals, all anxious to hear the verdict of the Papal
Court upon their Queen.

CLEMENT THE SIXTH.

P- 1541

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 155

As the Queen in her splendid robes entered
the doors of the Consistory Hall she knelt for
the first time, then in the middle of it she
genuflected a second time on both knees, and
finally, when she reached the foot of the throne
covered with crimson and gold, upon which the
Pope sat, she knelt the third time, and stooping
her head kissed his foot and then his hand — a
privilege granted to her on account of her high
rank. The Pope raised her and kissed her on
the lips, and after a few words had passed between
them he placed her on a seat prepared for her
on his right, rather lower than his own, with a
crimson and gold cushion for her feet.

The hall in which the Consistory was held was
filled from end to end with prelates of high rank,
princes, nobles, and ambassadors from every court
in Europe.

Conspicuous among them were two ambassadors
from Louis of Hungary, who had only just arrived
at Avignon from Naples to represent their King, to
accuse Joanna of the murder of Andrew, to justify
and defend the invasion by Louis of her kingdom,
and to demand not only the throne but the life of
Queen Joanna, the cynosure of all eyes as she sat
there in all the pride of her youth and beauty.

The Hungarians felt confident of winning their
cause, for their King was on very good terms with
Clement VI., and it was believed that the Pope would

156 The Beautiful Queen

favour Hungary, for there were reports that he had
a personal dislike of the Queen concerning whom
such sinister reports had reached him. The fact
that Joanna was an exile, driven out of her country
by the avenger of her murdered first husband, might
also militate against her, though on the other hand
it might evoke pity for her tragic fate.

Immediately following upon Joanna was her
second husband, Louis of Taranto, who likewise
made his obeisance to the Pope, and was allowed
the privilege of kissing Clement's hand and lips
because of his rank as the consort of the Queen ;
then Nicholas Acciajuoli and a few of the most
distinguished barons in her suite were duly presented
to the Holy Father, while she sat by his side medi-
tating upon what she would say to defend herself.
Not only her throne, but her life also depended
upon the verdict of the Consistory. She well knew
the power the Pope had over her crown and her
person ; she knew it was popularly believed that
he had been prejudiced against her, and was on
very friendly terms with her arch-enemy, that he
had been shocked and horrified at the murder of
Andrew, and probably believed some of the tales
that were afloat about her.

She must have trembled as she waited till these
presentations were over, when she rose and, leaving
her seat, began to address the Pope and Cardinals
sitting in judgment upon her. Fortunately for

Joanna Pleads before the Pope 157

Joanna, eloquence was one of her gifts ; still more
fortunate perhaps, that greatest of all feminine gifts
was hers in abundance — beauty ; most fortunate of
all, her judges were men, to whom her youth, beauty,
and terrible misfortunes would appeal strongly. We
can well imagine that every eye was turned upon
her, from the Pope's to the youngest knight's in
the hall.

We read that " her figure was tall and nobly
formed, her air composed and majestic, her carriage
altogether royal, her features of exquisite beauty,
and, with a character of grandeur, had a certain air
of natural goodness that softened their expression
and won the love whilst she commanded the respect
of those who beheld her."

What would the verdict be ?

CHAPTER XI
Joanna's Acquittal and its Results

LATIN is the language of the Consistory Court
of Rome, and, as no mention is made of any
interpreter, we may safely conclude that Joanna
pleaded her cause in that tongue, which she wrote
with ease ; for as her audience was so cosmopolitan
and the effect of her eloquence was so immediate,
she must have spoken a language understood by
all or most of her hearers. Had she addressed
them in either the Provencal or Italian language,
both of which she spoke with great fluency, only
part of her hearers would have understood. On
one occasion when Sancho, Prince of Castile, who
had to have an interpreter, was present at a Roman
Consistory he heard loud applause, and asked his
interpreter what was the meaning of it.

" They have just proclaimed your Highness King
of Egypt," said the interpreter.

" Indeed ! Well, it does not become us to be

i S 8

Joanna's jAcquittal and its Results 159

wanting in gratitude ; rise up and proclaim his
Holiness Caliph of Bagdad," said the Prince.

Joanna's defence of herself is said to have been
the most masterly piece of feminine oratory ever
heard. She first of all stated the points in her
defence so logically, clearly, forcibly, and briefly,
that long before she had finished speaking her
judges were convinced of her innocence. She
then went on to express the greatest horror of
the foul murder of Andrew, and deplored his sad
fate, cut off in the very flower of his youth, with
deep pathos, and then spoke of her own great
grief and horror at his untimely end, weeping so
touchingly that her fierce accusers, the Hungarian
ambassadors, were confounded, and attempted no
reply when the Queen had finished speaking. But
before she concluded she defended herself for the
delay in bringing the guilty to judgment, of which
she had been accused, and impressed upon her
audience that no tortures had been able to force
one of the conspirators to accuse her of having
had any part in the plot against Andrew.

The result of her eloquence was that the court
declared her not only innocent, but above the sus-
picion of guilt. The most ample acquittal which
she and her subjects could demand to reinstate her
in the good opinion of all men was unanimously
pronounced, and a decree passed confirming this
verdict. The Pope then publicly absolved her,

160 The Beautiful Queen

for hers was a case reserved to the Holy See ; and
as Joanna was a devout Catholic, she had earnestly
desired this grace to wash away all traces of any
sin her soul might have incurred during the terrible
trials she had been passing through, and she now
left the Consistory Hall at peace with God and
with man.

When, with the tears of joy upon her face,
she rose from her knees at the Pope's feet after
receiving absolution, he conducted her through the
Hall of Consistory and the ante-chamber, which
was as far as etiquette permitted him to go, and
then parted with her, and Louis of Taranto led
his innocent wife and Queen to the apartments
prepared for her in the Ursuline Convent. Clement
VI. was prevented by another rule of etiquette from
visiting her there more than once, but he duly
paid this visit ; and so long as she remained in
Avignon his palace was open to her and her
husband, upon both of whom he bestowed every
mark of honour.

Among the favours Joanna received from the
hands of the Sovereign Pontiff during her residence
in Avignon was the Golden Rose, which Clement
had intended giving to the King of Majorca, then
in Avignon. This Rose is an ornament made of
gold in the shape of a rose, which is blessed by
the Pope on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and then
bestowed by him upon some sovereign or monastery.

Joanna's Acquittal and its Results 161

It was not an annual custom until the reign of
St. Urban V., who came to the throne in 1363, and it
is now generally given to a sovereign. It was a rarer
favour in Joanna's day, and very highly valued. It
was bestowed upon her on March 27th, and that
same day the Queen and Louis of Taranto were led
in procession all round the walls of the city of
Avignon, as Count and Countess of Provence, and
afterwards received the homage of the Provencal
barons assembled for that purpose.

The allegiance of this proud race was not lightly
given nor lightly valued ; but as they had always
been faithful to the Angevine line, so were they
always tenderly attached and absolutely loyal to
Joanna, whom they loved to call "la bonne Reine
Jeanne."

Joanna would have had a far happier life if she
could have remained in Provence where she was loved
and revered by her subjects, instead of having to return
to Naples where so many misfortunes awaited her,
but during her visit to Avignon the city was visited
by one of the most terrible calamities that ever
befell suffering humanity. The festivities at the
Papal Court were all suspended by the Great Plague,
which, having already swept away millions in other
parts of Europe, now broke out in Provence.

It was during this visitation that Clement VI.
showed his charity and wisdom in so marked a
manner, thus rendering the fell disease less disastrous

1 1

1 62 The Beautiful Queen

in its consequences at Avignon than it was in other
places. To prevent the spread of the infection, he
established a special body of police ; he bought a field
outside the city as a burial-ground for the dead, and
spent large sums of money on the transport thither
of the infected corpses, besides paying doctors to
attend the poor and providing winding-sheets for
them. Avignon was at the time the plague broke
out full of visitors, many having come from the
country to pay homage to Joanna, which may
perhaps account for the enormous numbers — which
were estimated in Avignon at one hundred and
twenty thousand — who are said to have perished of
this terrible scourge.

The disease was at its height during Lent, and
during the three last days of Holy Week fourteen
hundred people are said to have died of it in the
city. The fact that it was worst during those days
when the Lenten fast was most strict shows that
to live well was one of the best means of warding
off an attack ; but at that time the Lenten fast was
very much stricter than it is now, and dispensations
not so easily granted. The greatest number of
victims were among the women and children of the
poorest classes.

The rich, however, were by no means exempt,
and one of the Avignon victims was Laura, the
beloved of Petrarch, who died on April 6th after
three days' illness. She had a presentiment that she

Joanna's Acquittal and its Results 163

would not live beyond three days after the fever set
in, so she made her will and sent for a priest and
received the Last Sacraments, and died with great
resignation, surrounded by friends and relations,
whom not even the fear of the plague could keep
away from one they so loved and admired. She died
about six o'clock in the morning of April 6th, and
was buried that same day after vespers, in the
chapel attached to the monastery of the Franciscan
Friars Minor.

Petrarch, who was still madly in love with her,
was at Verona at the time of her death, anxiously
expecting news of her ; but the plague had stopped
all communication with Avignon, as the couriers
who carried the letters could not pass. He did not
get the news of her death until May 9th, when he
was at Parma, and his grief, as may be imagined, was
intense. He passed several days without eating or
drinking, rendering himself, we should think, ex-
ceedingly liable to an attack of the dread disease.

He said of himself that " he dared not think of
his condition, much less could he speak of it, and
that the loss convinced him that there was no longer
anything worth living for; and since the strongest
cord of his life was now broken, he should renounce
the world, where his cares had been deceitful and
his hopes vain and perishing."

Before Petrarch had ceased to weep for Laura his
friend Cardinal Colonna also died of the plague at

164 The Beautiful Queen

Avignon, where his loss was greatly felt ; for his
court was a brilliant one, attended by literary men
and men of genius from all parts of Europe. But
the Italians who visited him could not bear Provence
after their Maecenas, as they called him, was dead, and
most of them left the city of Avignon and returned
to Italy.

Villani, the historian, was another victim to this
terrible pestilence, which had been predicted by
astrologers. But he left an account of the beginning
of it, and among other things he tells us that the
mortality was greater in Pistoja and Prato than in
Florence, and greater in Bologna and Avignon and
Provence and the whole kingdom of France, but
greatest in those countries beyond the sea among
the Tartars.

The Mendicant Friars came out splendidly during
this calamity. They attended the plague-stricken, and
administered to their spiritual needs, when other
priests neglected, and feared to go near them ;
they preached, heard the confessions of the dying,
and buried the dead. But the fact that many of the
dead had left their estates to them out of gratitude
roused the jealousy of the secular clergy, who
petitioned Clement VI. to suppress them. This
petition was presented to the Pope in the same
Consistory Court before which Joanna had pleaded,
and was supported by some cardinals and bishops.
The Pope refused to grant their request, and rebuked

Joanna's Acquittal and its Results 165

them in the following strong terms for their envious
conduct :

" The Mendicants have exposed their lives by
attending dying persons, and administering the
sacraments to them, whilst you, consulting your own
safety, fled from the danger and abandoned your
flocks. You have therefore no reason to complain
of what they have got, as they have got it by
performing the duty which you have neglected,
though incumbent upon you. They employ the
little they have gained in building or repairing
their churches, but you would perhaps have applied
it to very different uses. They preach nothing but
what they show by their example to be practicable,
whereas many among you preach one thing and
practise the contrary."

The credulity of the age led to a persecution of
the Jews, who were accused of having caused the
plague by poisoning the fountains. But Clement VI.
with his usual clemency defended them in two Bulls
which he published, forbidding them to be forcibly
baptised, under the severest penalties, as such was
the alternative given to the Hebrews if they wished
to escape death.

Another outcome of the fear and panic which
the plague roused was the revival of the fanatics
known as the Flagellants, who first appeared in
the eleventh century, and during the feuds of the
Guelphs and Ghibellines they spread throughout

1 66 The Beautiful Queen

France, Bohemia, Austria, Italy, Russia, Poland,
and Hungary, but they did not appear in England
until this second outburst of their fanaticism in 1348.

They were penitents who went in procession
through the various towns and cities to which they
penetrated, naked to the waist, and armed with
scourges, with which they lashed themselves until
the blood flowed, and marked their progress on
the ground. Clement suppressed them in the
following year, but they have frequently made their
appearance since.

It is computed that 100,000 victims perished of
the plague in Venice, 60,000 in Florence, 1,200,000
in Germany, and it is said that more than 200,000
villages and small towns were left without any
inhabitants. While of the good Friars who worked
so nobly to help the sick and dying, no less than
124,434 died of this terrible disease.

The cardinals and rich barons at Avignon shut
themselves up in their palaces, and burnt huge
fires to keep away the infection ; and Clement VI.,
who refused to go away from Avignon while it was
raging, also took this precaution of burning large
fires and remaining indoors.

The Great Pestilence, or the Black Death as it was
also called, did not appear in England until August
of this fatal year, 1348, and before it was extermin-
ated it carried off" 5,000,000 victims during the year
it lasted.

Joanna's Acquittal and its Results 167

Boccaccio, who had left Naples when the King of
Hungary invaded it, went to Florence and there
wrote his description of the ravages of this ghastly
scourge, which first of all began in the Far East.
He tells us that in his native city " no human
wisdom, no precautions, availed to avert the calamity.
In vain by the orders of the magistrates were the
streets cleared of every impurity ; in vain were
the gates of the city closed against all infected
persons, and the counsels of the most prudent put
in practice for the preservation of health. And
equally unavailing were the humble supplications,
not once but often made to God by devout persons,
in solemn processions and other forms."

His account is much too long to quote in full,
but he describes some of the attendant horrors with
great pathos, as when he says that in the panic
" brother abandoned brother, the uncle his nephew,
the sister her brother, the wife her husband, and,
what is more surprising still and scarcely credible,
fathers and mothers deserted their children as if
they were children (sic) and feared to visit or serve
them." Another horror he mentions was the sick being
thus deserted by neighbours, by friends, by relatives,
so that no woman, however delicate or beautiful
or noble, made any scruple to be served by a man,
let him be who he might, old or young, from which
cause many who survived lost much of the modesty
of their manners.

*68 The Beautiful Queen

The plague had one good effect as far as Joanna
was concerned : it frightened Louis of Hungary out
of Naples, although it was not so bad there as in
other parts of Italy, or as at Avignon and Provence.
He, however, thought it better to remove the great
body of his men to Apulia, to avoid the infection
in Naples, where its ravages were sufficiently serious.
His retreat paved the way for Joanna's return,
and about this time the news of her acquittal by
the Roman Consistory reached Naples, and a revul-
sion of feeling towards their exiled Queen set in
amongst the Neapolitans.

With the exception of a few important men, who
had gone too far in encouraging the Hungarians
to hope for forgiveness from Joanna, all classes
now united in earnestly desiring her return and
restoration to the throne of her grandfather. The
nobility, who hated the haughty Hungarians and
their insupportable yoke, resolved to throw it off;
but knowing this would be impossible without the
help and support of their Queen, they sent secret
messengers to Avignon, begging her to return
and take up the reins of government again, and
promising if she would supply them with a few
men and some money they would fight for her
and do all in their power to reinstate her in her
kingdom.

At first Joanna was not inclined to agree to this
proposal, knowing that it would be no easy task to

Joanna's Acquittal ' and its Results 169

get rid of the Hungarians ; but she laid the letters
brought by the Neapolitan ambassadors before the
Pope and the Cardinals, who were only more certain
of her innocence when they read them than they
had been before. They counselled her to grant the
petition of her subjects as quickly as possible, and
Clement, anxious if possible to prevent more blood-
shed, tried to restore her to her throne by diplomatic
measures. To which end he sent an apostolic legate
to Louis, Cardinal Guy of Boulogne, who was a relation
of the Queen of Hungary, and was remarkable for
his gentle manners and persuasive powers of speech,
by which the Pope hoped the King of Hungary might
be persuaded to retire and leave the throne to Joanna.

While the Cardinal was treating with Louis of
Hungary in Naples, Joanna's staunch friend Nicholas
Acciajuoli was engaged in trying to raise men and
money in order to wrest the kingdom from the
invader by force, if diplomacy failed to accomplish
the reinstatement of Joanna. The States of Provence
and Piedmont vied with each other in contributing
to the expedition, but their combined efforts fell far
short of the required sum, and the Queen was re-
duced not only to selling her famous diamonds, but
all her other jewels, and finally to offering the city of
Avignon with the surrounding country to the Pope.

Louis of Hungary, feeling sure that possession was
nine points of law, refused to listen to any of the
proposals of the Cardinal of Boulogne for a peaceful

i7° The Beautiful Queen

settlement, so there was nothing for it, if Joanna was
to recover her kingdom, but to resort to arms.

The sum the Queen asked for Avignon was
80,000 golden florins. A gold florin was at that
time worth about a fifth of an ounce of gold, so that
the price for which she sold it was equal to about
60,000 pounds sterling of our money. The Pope
immediately paid this sum, which was used to defray
the cost of ten galleys fully equipped, and armed
with the men Acciajuoli had enlisted to relieve Naples
from the Hungarian yoke.

It is said that the Queen had succeeded in
winning the friendship of Clement so completely that
he would now do anything for her, and willingly
agreed to pay the sum she demanded for Avignon.
He knew that Joanna earnestly desired the coronation
of her husband, Louis of Taranto, as King of Naples,
and that she wished for this almost as much as she
wished for the restoration of her kingdom ; and
when he gave her and Louis his parting blessing
he bestowed the coveted title upon him.

In consequence of this sale the Emperor
Charles IV. yielded to the Pope all the rights which
he possessed over the town of Avignon, in the
month of November, 1348, at Gorpiet. The Latin
contract, still in existence, states among other things
that Joanna sold Avignon with the consent of her
husband, Louis of Taranto. By this sale she
sacrificed the lesser possessions of Avignon to regain

Joanna's Acquittal and its Results 171

the throne of the Two Sicilies. The contract of sale
was signed on June 19th, 1348, in the house at
which Joanna was residing in Avignon at the time.

Joanna remained about three weeks longer in
the plague-stricken city of Avignon after the sign-
ing of the contract for its sale, and then, all their
preparations being complete, she and Louis went to
Marseilles and embarked there for Naples, full of
hope and elated with the knowledge that at any rate
the campaign would not be crippled for want of
means.

They were returning under very different circum-
stances from those under which they had left Naples.
Then Joanna was suspected and openly accused of
the murder of her first husband ; now she was
returning with her character not only cleared, but
with the assurance of the Pope and Cardinals that she
was above suspicion, and was now under the special
favour and protection of the Holy See — a valued
friend of Clement VI., the idol of the gallant
Provencal barons. Moreover, she was going back
at the earnest invitation of her Neapolitan subjects,
who were now only too ready to lay down their lives,
if need be, to restore her to her throne.

CHAPTER XII
Peace is Proclaimed

ALL the Neapolitan castles were occupied by the
Hungarians, so it was not possible for Joanna
to land in the harbour. Accordingly, when her gal-
leys reached Naples, they stopped short at the little
river of Sebeto, on the Vesuvian side of the city,
by the Ponte della Maddalena, to which the in-
habitants flocked in crowds to welcome them with
every demonstration of joy, so that the whole
of that part of the city rang with the shouts
with which the people acclaimed their returning
Queen.

Foremost among the barons who hastened to
ofFer their congratulations and allegiance were the
Count of Minervino and his brothers, who had
originally been on the Hungarian side, and now
hurried to proffer all the help they could to expel
the enemy.

One of the former enemies of Joanna did not

return to his allegiance. This was Francis de Baux,

172

Peace is Proclaimed 173

Count of Montecagiuso, a nephew of the late King
Robert, whose mother Beatrice was a nun, but was
taken out of her convent to marry Francis's father,
Bertrand de Baux. This was sometimes allowed in
the Middle Ages, from reasons of State or policy,
when a dispensation was obtained from the religious
vows to enable the person to marry.

During the absence of Louis of Taranto this
Francis de Baux had married one of Louis's sisters,
without first getting his or Joanna's consent. The
poor young Princess of Taranto had found herself
alone and unprotected in Naples on the day when
the Hungarians had pillaged and destroyed the
palaces of the Neapolitan royal family, on that
occasion when Joanna's sister Maria had fled in
disguise. Francis de Baux had taken pity on the
Princess, who was his cousin ; and she, knowing her
brothers were, with the exception of Louis, all in
captivity, consented to marry Francis without waiting
to obtain the sanction of her family. The young
couple, not knowing what kind of reception they
might meet with from Joanna and Louis, were
afraid to appear before them ; but the Queen,
well aware that the de Baux were some of the
richest and most powerful of her subjects, with her
usual prudence and tact resolved to conciliate them
and overlook the breach of royal etiquette of which
they had been guilty.

Accordingly she sent the Count letters-patent

174 The Beautiful Queen

conferring upon him the Dukedom of Andria, an
honour which none but a prince of the royal line
had hitherto enjoyed. Upon receiving this signal
mark of royal favour, de Baux and his bride went
to court and throwing themselves at Joanna's feet,
he vowed allegiance and devotion to her cause, and
from that time became one of her most zealous
supporters.

Nicholas Acciajuoli was now made Grand Seneschal
of the kingdom, in reward for all his services in
Provence, for to some extent Joanna owed the
successful issue of her cause in the Papal Court to
his exertions and those of his brother the Bishop
of Florence. Joanna also rewarded with presents
of land and money, and with various honours and
privileges, all those who had been faithful to her,
and all the young knights who had fought for her.
Joanna's cause had been recommended to all the
knights of Europe, by the Papal Court, as one which
in those days of chivalry they were peculiarly bound
to defend, and they were not slow to become the
champions of the beautiful young Queen. As soon
as Joanna returned to Naples she gave a series of
entertainments to signalise her return, and these
festivities and rejoicings greatly increased her popu-
larity, and made her court a striking contrast to
that of the barbarian Hungarian invader, whose
courtiers treated the Neapolitans with haughty disdain,
which they naturally resented deeply.

Peace is Proclaimed 175

Louis of Taranto was of great help to Joanna
in winning popularity, for he was said to be " as
beautiful as the day," being gifted, like his royal
spouse, with extraordinary personal beauty ; he also
possessed the charming manners for which all the
Angevine family were famed. He was a fine soldier,
and highly distinguished in all the accomplishments
of a mediaeval knight, such as jousts, tournaments,
and field-sports. In fact, he had all the qualities
calculated to win the hearts of the pleasure-loving
Neapolitans, but he did not possess the more solid
virtues of a faithful husband, at any rate in his
later years.

Joanna is greatly blamed by her enemies for
the gaiety of her court, the lavish entertainments
in which she indulged, the luxury of her table, the
brilliancy of her attire, and the constant round of
balls, banquets, pageants, tournaments, and other
festivities on which she spent so much money ; but
she was eminendy a wise woman, and probably she
knew that this was the best way to retain her
husband's affections, which she succeeded in doing
during the first years of her married life. Later, as
we shall see, Louis led so wild and profligate a
life that he shortened his days by his excesses.

So long as he was engaged in fighting Joanna's
battles for her Louis was a good husband. The
excitement of war kept him out of mischief, and
satisfied his energetic temperament and craving for

176 The Beautiful Queen

excitement, without which he could not live even
in the fourteenth century. What he would have
done in the twentieth century, when the craze for
something new possesses old and young, rich and
poor, all classes of men and women, we do not
know. On first returning to Naples, with the
Hungarians still in occupation, Louis had plenty
of scope for his martial energy : he at once under-
took an expedition against the Count of Apici —
a powerful baron who obstinately adhered to the
Hungarian cause, but was soon reduced to obedience
and heavily fined for his rebellion.

One of the most audacious of the captains of
mercenaries, after our own Hawkwood, in these
days was a German who went by the name of
Duke Warner. This ruffian went about with the
following legend embroidered in silver letters on
his surcoat : "I am Duke Warner, the Chief of
the Great Company, the Enemy of God, of Pity,
and of Mercy."

This blasphemous creature, who spread terror
wherever he went with his band of pillaging,
murdering, merciless adherents, was serving under
the Hungarian King's lieutenant, Conrad Wolf,
when Louis defeated the Count of Apici. As he
had three thousand horsemen under him, it was
very important to enlist his services in Joanna's
interest if possible, and Louis took the money
exacted from the Apici as a fine to buy Warner

Peace is Proclaimed 177

over to the Queen's side. Louis now gained a
succession of small victories. With Warner's help
he captured some of the castles and garrisoned
towns which were in the Hungarians' hands, but
he was not strong enough to risk a great battle,
into which Wolf tried to draw him. " Duke
Warner " counselled him to avoid this, though
the Hungarians passed close to the Neapolitan
trenches, taunting and insulting the nobles and
endeavouring to induce them to accept their
challenges.

Foiled in these tactics, Wolf now encamped himself
in Foggia, whose inhabitants he induced, under con-
ditions which he violated immediately, to yield their
city to him, hoping that Louis would try to relieve
Foggia. Again foiled — for Louis resisted this
temptation, and has been severely blamed for so
doing — Wolf now advanced upon Naples, and en-
deavoured to persuade Warner to rejoin him. Warner
played into his hand by encamping without sentinels
and suffering himself to be taken, and then asked
Louis to ransom him and pay thirty thousand florins
to the Hungarians. Louis very wisely refused to do
anything of the kind, and Warner attached himself
to Wolf, who was further reinforced by troops from
Hungary and another band of mercenaries com-
manded by the Count of Lando.

The Neapolitans of all classes now put forth
their whole strength to repel their cruel foes. The

12

178 The Beautiful Queen

peasants thronged into Naples armed with reaping
hooks, scythes, spades — anything they could lay
hands on for want of proper arms — to try to
deliver their country from the hated Hungarians.
The nobles, including the Count of Minervino, who
had originally been on the Hungarian side, now
collected all the armed men they could muster, and
poured them into the city ; but unfortunately Wolf
cut off the supplies of provisions from the Terra
di Lavoro, so that the city was reduced to what
it could obtain by sea from Calabria and other
places.

The Neapolitans, impatient at having their rations
reduced, and quite against the advice of Louis, who
knew they were not strong enough to give battle to
the Hungarians, allowed themselves to be tricked
into an engagement, in which many perished, for
they were surrounded on all sides by the enemy.
The mercenaries whom the Hungarians had engaged
now became dissatisfied with their wretched payment,
and threatened to leave their employers in the lurch,
so the Transylvanian General, Prince Stephen, de-
livered into their hands in the place of money all
the prisoners of war whom they had taken. The
unfortunate prisoners were subjected to the most
horrible tortures by these cruel bands, who were
guilty of rapine, murder, and every vice. The
prisoners paid large sums of money to ransom
themselves ; but the mercenaries, when they found

Peace is Proclaimed 179

they could not extort sufficient to satisfy their
greed, resolved to take Stephen himself prisoner and
torture him in the hope of getting a larger sum of
money. Fortunately the Transylvanian prince was
warned of these intentions, and one night managed
to effect his escape with some of his officers.

Duke Warner had formerly been employed in
the service of the Church, so he was known to the
Cardinal Legate Ceccano, as were also other of the
German officers ; and on his offering them 1 20,000
florins, they agreed to deliver up the two towns
of Aversa and Capua, and to go back to Germany.
Louis of Taranto then fortified these two towns
very strongly, so that the following year Aversa
was able to resist when besieged by the Hungarian
King.

Another celebrated character fighting on the side
of the Hungarians was Fra Moriale, a knight of
Jerusalem, whose real name was Montreal D'Albano.
He was a Provencal by birth, and had formerly been
in the service of Joanna's brother-in-law, the Duke
of Durazzo. He now retired to Apulia with
Conrad Wolf, and sent word to Louis of Hungary
that the Germans had forsaken him and gone back
to their own country.

Fra Moriale's end was a tragic one, though it
is rather anticipating events to mention it. After
the Hungarians had left Naples, Fra Moriale re-
mained behind ; and collecting together a large band

180 The Beautiful Queen

of adventurers, he ravaged Italy, finally making
war against the Viscontis. He was taken prisoner
in Rome, and, being brought before the tribunal of
Rienzi, then in power, he was sentenced to death,
and beheaded in 1354.

On hearing that the Germans had left Naples,
Louis of Hungary soon after entered Apulia with
a large force of 10,000 horsemen, besides a number
of foot-soldiers. No sooner was Louis of Taranto
aware that his enemy was so near, than he sent him
a challenge to decide the matter by single combat
with him, and gave him the choice of Naples,
Avignon, Paris, or Perugia, as the scene of the
encounter.

Louis of Hungary agreed to accept the challenge,
but objected to all the places named, as being too
favourably inclined to his adversary, and suggested
that the duel should be fought in the presence
of the Bishop of Aquila, or of the Emperor of
Germany, or else in that of their common friend,
the King of England, or in that of their respective
armies, in which latter case there is every reason to
suppose the Hungarians would have been guilty
of some treachery.

For some reason or other this duel never came
off, and soon after the King of Hungary, while
besieging the city of Canoza in Apulia, was danger-
ously wounded and picked up apparently dead
before the walls, and carried back to his own camp,

Peace is Proclaimed 181

where he recovered and soon after captured Salerno.
The citadel of Lucera was given up treacherously
to him by the governor, and he then advanced to
Aversa, thinking to take that easily.

He was, however, mistaken, and the siege of Aversa
lasted three months before Pignatello, the governor,
was forced by starvation to capitulate on honourable
terms.

It was while the Hungarians were still invading
her kingdom that Joanna heard of the death of her
little son by Andrew, Canrobert, the heir to her
throne, who it will be remembered had been sent
to Hungary by Louis of Hungary soon after he
first came to Naples. Some few months after Joanna
returned to Naples from Avignon she gave birth
to a daughter, who was baptized Francesca. The
child was idolised by both her parents, and before she
was three years old a marriage had been arranged
for her with the heir of the kingdom of Aragon.

A year after the birth of the Princess Francesca
Joanna gave birth to another daughter, who was
named Catherine. She, however, died in infancy,
and thenceforth all Joanna's hopes were concentrated
upon Francesca, her only son having perished in
a foreign land.

After the capitulation of Aversa the Queen and
her husband and child, with some faithful friends,
went to Gaeta by sea, fearing that Louis of Hungary,
now on his way to Naples, might take them prisoners,

1 82 The Beautiful Queen

and hoping in case of necessity to be able to retreat
to Provence, in ten galleys which were in waiting
for them at Gaeta.

These ten galleys were not considered sufficient,
so the High Admiral of the kingdom, Rinaldo de
Baux, was ordered to bring eight more from Naples.
Once more was Joanna threatened with treason ; for
while she was waiting at Gaeta for the reinforce-
ments her Admiral was commanded to bring, there
arrived one day a messenger who desired a secret
audience of the Queen, in the course of which he
informed her that de Baux, who was supposed to
be laying in provisions before he left Naples, had
concluded a bargain with Louis of Hungary by
which he pledged himself to deliver Joanna and
her husband and the little Princess Francesca, to-
gether with Joanna's sister, Maria of Sicily, the
Duchess of Durazzo, and her children, into the hands
of the King of Hungary. The reward he asked
for this act of treachery was the hand of Maria's
eldest daughter, the heiress of the principality ot
Durazzo, for his son.

As soon as the Admiral and his fleet reached
Gaeta, Joanna sent a message to him to come at
once to the palace to see her, De Baux refused on
various pretexts, and even declined to enter the
harbour ; and as, so long as he remained outside with
his fleet, the flight of the Queen to Provence, if
it should become necessary was prevented, Louis

Peace is Proclaimed 183

of Taranto decided upon very summary measures.
He took three or four faithful friends with him, and
embarking on board a small boat managed to get
on board the Admiral's ship before he was aware of
his approach ; and making his way into the traitor's
presence, Louis attacked him and slew him there and
then with his sword. It was a bold move, quite
in keeping with the rough times and with the
character of Louis, and perhaps justified by the
circumstances. Indeed, it seemed the quickest way
out of the dilemma in which de Baux's treachery
had placed the Queen, who was fated so often in
the course of her adventurous life to suffer from
treason.

While these things were happening at Gaeta
Louis of Hungary had entered Naples with his
ragged, half-starved army, and had encamped on
the spot where now stands the Church of the
Incoronata, afterwards built by Joanna.

Naples was then divided into twelve sections
called Piazze, and from each of these twelve
divisions a proclamation was issued in which Louis
of Hungary offered to save the city from destruction
on condition of the people contributing a heavy fine,
to compensate his soldiers for the plunder they would
gain if he allowed them to pillage it.

He called a meeting of the nobility and principal
citizens at Castel Nuovo, and made the same
proposal to them, and rebuked them for the

184 The Beautiful Queen

affection they had shown their Queen and all they
had done for her. The sight of the miserable
horses and soldiers of the Hungarian army, however,
excited the ridicule of the Neapolitans, who collected
together from every quarter of the city, and
threatened to give battle to their enemies if they
attempted the least violence, and absolutely refused
to give a penny to buy them off.

Louis, thinking that his enfeebled troops would
not have much chance against the Neapolitans, who
were determined to strain every nerve to save
their beautiful city, thought it prudent to retire
to Apulia, and if possible join his forces to those
of Conrad Wolf there.

The Pope, hearing of this move, thought a favour-
able time had arrived for him to try to conclude
peace, as both sides were getting exhausted ; and,
according to one account, he commanded Louis,
under pain of excommunication, to leave Naples —
or rather Joanna's dominions — at once, and allow
Joanna and her husband to take possession of her
kingdom.

Louis proposed a truce for a year, and demanded
another trial before the Pope and Cardinals of
Joanna, promising, if she were declared innocent
again, to give up her kingdom to her, and Joanna
promised to resign it if she were pronounced guilty.

Of course Joanna was pronounced innocent a
second time — no one ever had any misgivings on

Peace is Proclaimed 185

that score ; and the Pope then drew up a treaty
with the Hungarian ambassadors, in which it
was stipulated that Louis of Taranto should not
bear the title of King, and that if Joanna had no
children to survive her, her rights were to pass to
Louis of Hungary or his successors, to the exclusion
of her sister, the widowed Duchess of Durazzo.

The Hungarians signed this treaty, but when
it was put before Joanna she refused absolutely to
exclude her husband from the throne, or to sign
away her sister's right of succession, or to submit
her people to the danger of the hated Hungarian
yoke. As Joanna was firm, and it was evident
that she would never yield, and would refuse to
sign any treaty except one of whose terms she
approved, the Pope gave way to her eloquence, and
drew up another treaty, in which the title of King
was granted to Louis of Taranto, and all the con-
ditions as to the succession contained in the will
of the late King Robert were agreed to ; the Pope
stipulating that Joanna should pay Louis a sum of
300,000 florins for delivering up all the castles and
fortresses he had captured in Naples.

At this juncture Louis's haughtiness stood Joanna
in good stead, for with the pride of his race he
refused to accept the money.

" No ! " he cried : " not for the sake of lands and
gold, but only out of revenge of the murder of
my brother have I fought. My work is finished.

1 86 The Beautiful Queen

The angry shadows are reconciled. I desire nothing
more."

Would not this conduct be sufficient to prove
the innocence of Joanna if more proof were wanting ?
for if she had been guilty of the murder of Andrew,
Louis of Hungary had received no satisfaction
for it.

The Pope and the Cardinals were much pleased
at this magnanimity on the part of the Hungarian
King, and thanked him cordially for it ; and
Joanna, as soon as the treaty was signed, sent an
embassy to Clement to thank him on her part
for all the trouble he had taken on her behalf,
and at the same time to beg him to issue a Bull
for her own coronation and for that of her husband.
The Pope granted her request, issued the desired
Bull, and sent the Bishop of Braganca to perform
the ceremony of coronation on Whit-Sunday, which
that year fell on May 25 th.

CHAPTER XIII
The Coronation of Joanna

ONE of the conditions of the treaty of peace
between Joanna and Louis of Hungary
was the liberation of all the princes of the blood
royal, who had been sent to Hungary after the
murder of the Duke of Durazzo, and had been
imprisoned now for four years in the castle of
Visgrade. Their imprisonment had been for
Joanna the soul of good in the evil of the invasion
of her kingdom, for if they had been at liberty,
their quarrels with each other and their ambition
would have weakened her cause by creating divisions
in her realm, and it would have been better for
Joanna if they had never been liberated, as it turned
out, for they were a turbulent set.

Preparations were now made for the coronation,
and people began to flock into Naples from all
parts of the kingdom to witness what promised

to be a magnificent spectacle, for it was well known

187

1 88 The Beautiful Queen

that Joanna loved pomp and grand functions.
But not even Joanna's coronation was allowed to
take place peacefully ; a serious disturbance took
place just before it came off, and a great sorrow
befell her immediately after it was over.

One of those mercenary bands which were one
of the terrors of the Middle Ages, commanded by
a German named Beltram della Molta, waylaid a
number of the barons and their wives, who were
proceeding to the coronation, near Aversa, and
robbed them of the splendid dresses they were
about to wear at it, and of all the jewels and other
valuables which they had brought with them. This
band of robbers was a thousand strong, all mounted
men, and the barons were powerless against them ;
but Louis of Taranto, hearing of the outrage, went
in pursuit with five hundred knights, and succeeded
in dispersing all the band, except Beltram and
twenty of his followers, who alone escaped, for those
who were not slain by the swords of Louis and his
knights were killed by the peasants.

The coronation took place on the Feast of Pente-
cost in the chapel of the old Palais de Justice, which
was afterwards included in the Church of the In-
coronata, which Joanna built in 1352 to commemorate
her coronation and her marriage with Louis of
Taranto. Pentecost was ever a favourite feast with
the Angevine family.

After the High Mass, which was celebrated with

The Coronation of Joanna 189

all the grand ritual of the Catholic Church, the
beautiful and majestic young Queen and her hand-
some husband, clad in violet velvet robes (violet
being the colour of the Neapolitan royal family),
knelt before the Bishop of Braganca to receive the
crown from his hands, Louis being crowned as
King-consort. The splendid robes of the King
and Queen and their courtiers and the handsome
vestments of the Bishop and clergy made a
magnificent blaze of colour in the chapel on this
day, which is said to have been the happiest of
Joanna's life, although it was destined to end in
sorrow.

After the ceremony was over Joanna and Louis
went in procession round the city, to give the
populace an opportunity of seeing them : they rode
on horseback, with their crowns on their heads, their
horses led by two noblemen. Just as they passed
the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, after coming
through the Porta Nolana, where the hospital of
San Giovanni now stands, some ladies threw some
flowers from a balcony to greet them. Unfortunately
this so startled the King's horse that it reared
and broke the bridle-reins held by two barons, and
Louis threw himself off its back ; he escaped
unhurt, but his crown fell from his head and broke
in three pieces.

The attendants and bystanders all cried out with
the vehemence of their nationality that this was a

190 The Beautiful Queen

dreadful sign portending all sorts of evil ; but the
King only laughed and called for another horse, and,
fastening the broken crown together as well as he
could, set it on his head again and continued his
progress round the city. It was late in the evening
when Joanna and her royal consort returned to the
Castel Nuovo, to find these unhappy prognostica-
tions realised sufficiently to justify the superstition
of their subjects, at least in their opinion.

The little Princess had been left in charge of her
attendants in the Castel Nuovo, which was that day
deserted by every one else, as all had gone to see
the coronation and the procession, and during her
mother's absence she had been taken ill, probably
with convulsions, as she died before Joanna returned,
and this was the sad news which greeted her parents
when they got home from the grand ceremonies in
which they had been engaged. Joanna was now
dashed from the happiness she had that day enjoyed
in such fulness, and was plunged into the grief
which only a mother's heart can know. This was
the third child she had lost within a year or two,
and it was the idol of her and Louis, on whom all
their hopes were fixed. Her little son had recently
died in a foreign land, after being taken from her
when only a baby, then the infant daughter of Louis
had died, and now the little Princess Francesca was
cut off.

So far as the child was concerned, it was a

The Coronation of Joanna 19 1

merciful dispensation of Providence, for had she
lived she would probably have fallen a victim to
some of her mother's enemies in that age of violence,
but it is not to be imagined that her mother saw
it in that light. Joanna never had another child
of her own ; she adopted one of her sister Maria's
little girls, and later on she adopted Charles of
Durazzo as her heir, and nourished a viper in her
bosom when she did so.

That same year, not long after peace had been
proclaimed, another sorrow met Joanna in the death
of her friend Pope Clement VI., who had been a
second father to her, in not only pronouncing her
innocent of the crime of which her enemies had.
accused her, but in also restoring her to her throne.
The memory of this Pope, who was one of the most
profound scholars of the age, and a most mild and
benevolent sovereign, has suffered much at the hands
of Italian historians, because of his persistence in
residing at Avignon instead of at Rome. On the
other hand, the French historian de Sade says he
was one of the greatest men who ever filled the
Chair of Peter, and that if he had some faults, they
were atoned for by great virtues and amiable qualities,
and that he accomplished a great undertaking in
which his predecessors had failed — namely, he
deposed the troublesome Louis of Bavaria and
elected Charles of Luxembourg in his place. This
Louis of Bavaria was the great enemy of the

i<? 2 The Beautiful Queen

Pope John XXII., and had presumed to set up
an antipope in his place after the Pope had ex-
communicated him, and the Prince Colonna had
the courage to affix the sentence to the walls of
the Vatican. By the deposition of this Emperor
the great struggle, which had troubled the Church
so long, between the Papacy and the Empire was
ended.

Petrarch says of Clement VI. that none merited
better the name of Clement, which was well deserved
by his actions. An example of his clemency is
given by his biographers which well illustrates this
trait in his character. A person who had grievously
offended him once ventured to ask a favour of
him ; the Pope was tempted to seize the opportunity
of revenging himself by refusing to listen to his
request, but he resisted the temptation and granted
the favour.

He was very eloquent, and spoke with great
fluency and dignity. He succeeded in the difficult
task of reconciling Joanna and the King of Hungary,
and in obtaining a truce between the Kings of
France and England, whose wars disturbed his
reign. He just failed to reconcile the Greek and
Latin Churches, for which he laboured with great
wisdom and prudence. His conduct during the
Great Plague, when his charity and generosity were
so conspicuous, may well atone for faults of worldli-
ness and love of luxury, which made him refuse to

The Coronation of Joanna 193

transfer the Papal See back to Rome, even at the
bidding of the great Swedish saint and mystic,
St. Bridget, Princess of Nericia.

Another of Clement's good actions was that he
ordered Casimir, King of Poland, who was leading a
most immoral life, to send away his mistresses and to
be faithful to his wife. The King refused at first to
do this, but he afterwards submitted, and performed
the penance the Pope imposed upon him. Petrarch
never liked Clement, and often satirised him because
his luxurious life was so unlike that of the Apostles,
so his remark quoted above about his clemency is
the more valuable.

Upon the death of Clement, the Cardinals, seeing
the need for reform in the Church, and thinking
that the new Pope should be a man of austere life,
turned their eyes upon a very holy Carthusian monk
named John Birel, who was at that time General
of his Order, the strictest in the Church. He was
a native of Limousin, and was famed for his sanctity
of life, and his zeal in preaching repentance, and his
courage in exhorting kings and princes with the
utmost frankness and severity.

One of the Cardinals, named Talleyrand, an
ancestor of the diplomatist, took alarm at the
prospect of so strict a successor to Clement, and
said to the other Cardinals :

" What are you going to do ? Don't you see
that this monk, accustomed to govern anchorites,

J 3

19 6 The Beautiful Queen

frequently declined. Nearly the whole of the poetry
of Zanobi has been lost ; all that remains of his works
are some prose translations of the works of Gregory
the Great. Not long after his appointment as
Apostolical Secretary he died of the plague at
Avignon, to which court his post attached him.
The Florentines held him in such high estimation
that they proposed in 1396 to erect monuments
worthy of Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Zanobi de
Strada.

The island of Sicily : had revolted from the
Angevine rule in the latter part of the thirteenth
century, the first outbreak taking place at the
Sicilian Vespers, when the French were murdered
at Palermo, the signal being the bell for Vespers.
The islanders then placed themselves under the
government of the Aragonese dynasty ; but at
the time of Joanna's coronation, the King Frederick
being a minor, the Sicilians were governed by a
regency, who so oppressed the people that a party
arose in rebellion against it, headed by Simon,
Count of Chiaramonte, who was in fact, though not
in name, the ruler of the whole of the most fertile
part of the island. This party, three years after
the coronation of Joanna and Louis, appealed to
them to send them provisions to ward off an
impending famine, and troops to help them to
resist their oppressors.

Naples being now prosperous, the Queen sent

The Coronation of Joanna 197

them an abundance of provisions, but as the
rivalry of the Princes of Taranto and Durazzo
constantly led to fighting between them, Joanna
could only send them a hundred men-at-arms under
Nicholas Acciajuoli, and four hundred horsemen
under Raymond de Baux, while Louis remained
at home to defend his rights there.

The following year, Naples being quieter, Louis
was able to take a small army into Sicily, and there
he fought so valiantly that he soon made himself
master of nearly all the island, except Catania and
its neighbourhood. Frederick, the young King,
was in Catania, and for three months the Neapolitans
besieged the city under Raymond de Baux, whom
both Joanna and Louis loved as a father.

In the meanwhile Joanna, on Christmas Eve, 1356,
came across from Naples and made a solemn entry
into Messina with Louis. Here they were crowned
King and Queen of Sicily, and afterwards received
the allegiance of the Messinese and of the chief
barons of the island.

Here we will make a brief digression to tell the
romantic story of a lady of Messina, who was one
of the Illustrious Women of Boccaccio and lived
in Joanna's time, though she was many years older
than the Queen. Her name was Camiola Turinga,
she was very rich and was as good as she was
beautiful, and when she was young and unmarried,
a young and handsome Prince of Aragon, named

198 The Beautiful Queen

Orlando, excited her compassion. During the
reign of his brother Peter, King of Sicily, Orlando
had, against his brother's express command, given
battle to the Neapolitan fleet, and had lost all his
own ships and was taken prisoner and cast into
a Neapolitan dungeon in one of their castles, from
which Peter refused to ransom him, and, but for
the compassion of Camiola, he would probably have
been doomed to pass his life in this durance vile.
She, wishing to procure his liberty, sent a messenger
to his prison in Naples to offer to pay his ransom
if, in return, he would promise to marry her on
his release.

Orlando, delighted at the prospect of regaining
his freedom, willingly signed a contract of marriage,
and Camiola paid his ransom ; but no sooner was
the prince set free than he absolutely refused to
marry her, and treated her with scorn and haughty
contempt.

Camiola now appealed to the King Peter, who
decided that Orlando belonged to Camiola, as by
the law of the land he was now her slave, whom
she had bought with her money, and a day was
fixed for the marriage to take place. Orlando
arrived on the day fixed with a splendid, princely
retinue, and went to Camiola's house, where he
found her dressed as a bride in magnificent attire,
and wearing costly jewels ; but instead of, receiving
him with signs of affection, she told him she would

The Coronation of Joanna 199

scorn to ally herself with a man who had broken
his knightly word and disgraced his royal birth
and violated the sacred laws of chivalry, and that
all that she could do for him was to make him a
present of the ransom she had already paid, seeing
that all he cared for was money ; she would hence-
forth dedicate herself and her fortune to Heaven
and enter a convent.

Orlando pleaded for forgiveness, but she refused
to listen or to change her mind, and the prince,
who was shunned by all honourable men, his equals,
fell into a state of depression and died not long
after, friendless and forlorn.

But to return to Messina in 1356. When Joanna
arrived at the Castle she found the two sisters
of the King of Sicily, the Princesses Bianca and
Violante, were imprisoned there : she at once had
them liberated and treated them as her own sisters.
The King Frederick was very delicate, and in case
of his death Bianca was the heiress of Sicily. The
Count de Chiramonte asked for her hand in
marriage as soon as she was liberated, as a reward
for his services ; but Joanna and Louis dared not
consent to this, in case the young King should die,
so they refused their consent, but offered Chiramonte
the Duchess of Durazzo instead. This would have
been a splendid match for the Count ; but he died
a few days after the Queen's refusal to his proposal
for the Princess Bianca, which he had deeply

200 The Beautiful Queen

resented. His family also were so angry at his
rejection that they all went back to their allegiance
to the house of Aragon, and left Joanna in the
lurch.

At the end of three months de Baux was obliged
to raise the siege of Catania, as he had not sufficient
means to pay the Sicilian troops who had joined him,
and after some fighting, in which he was at first
victorious, he was eventually defeated and taken
prisoner by the Catanians, who were superior in
numbers. Acciajuoli escaped by the skin of his
teeth, but de Baux was confined in the Castle of
Francavilla. The Queen had not sufficient money to
ransom her faithful servant, so she sold her jewels
and offered the proceeds, which were a large sum
of money, for his release. The Regency, however,
refused to accept the money, and asked instead that
the two Princesses Bianca and Violante, who were
very happy with Joanna, should be exchanged for
de Baux.

This exchange was agreed to by the Queen, and
the two Princesses were set at liberty ; but the
governor of the castle in which the High Admiral
was confined declined to release him, notwithstand-
ing the orders of the Regency, and demanded an
additional ransom of two thousand ducats, which
the Queen paid.

Unfortunately, during the absence of the Queen and
Louis war had broken out between Louis of Durazzo

From an early woodcut portrait, by kind permission of Mr. St. Clair Baddeley.
JOANNA THE FIRST, QUEEN OF NAPLES.

p. 200]

The Coronation of Joanna 201

on one side, and Louis's eldest brother, the Prince
of Taranto, on the other. The Count of Minervino
(who, it will be remembered, had been released from
the perpetual imprisonment to which he had been
condemned in the reign of King Robert) now joined
Louis of Durazzo ; and as this civil war was ravaging
the kingdom, Joanna and Louis of Taranto were
obliged to leave the conquest of Sicily, which they
would otherwise have completed, and return to
Naples to restore peace there.

On their arrival they summoned the Prince of
Taranto, Louis of Durazzo, and the Count of
Minervino to appear before them. The Prince
of Taranto at once obeyed, and submitted to the
Queen's authority ; but Louis of Durazzo absolutely
refused to come into the presence of either the King
or the Queen, or to yield them any obedience. The
Count of Minervino appeared at court, but behaved
in so haughty a manner and made such unreason-
able demands that the sovereigns had no choice but
to oppose him on the battlefield. He was very
rich, for he and his brothers, the other Pipini, had
acquired great wealth by their former ravages, and
they were assisted by the barbarian mercenaries they
hired.

The throne was now in great danger, and a civil
war ensued which disturbed the country ; but in the
end the Queen's forces were happily victorious, and
the Pipini destroyed root and branch. The Count

202 The Beautiful Queen

of Minervino was taken prisoner, and condemned
to the ignominious death of hanging. One of his
brothers was thrown down from a high tower by
one of his own soldiers, and the third of the Pipini
managed to escape from Naples, but was never
afterwards heard of, and is believed to have perished.
Thus this family, which had given so much trouble
to the late King as well as to Joanna, was at last
exterminated.

The Queen, with her usual generosity, granted
Louis of Durazzo a free pardon, on account of his
royal birth and relationship to her. A great banquet
was given in the Bishop's Palace by Louis and
Joanna to celebrate the reconciliation. All the
members of the royal family were invited to be
present, and after the banquet the whole of the
Neapolitan nobility attended the King in a royal
progress round the city.

For several days tournaments and jousts were held
to amuse the people, and in the evenings what were
called " solemn balls " were given at court, at which
the majestic Queen was the most striking figure and
the object of universal admiration. This took place
in 1359.

In the following year the haughty Louis of
Durazzo died, and Joanna undertook the education
of his eldest son, Charles, whom she afterwards
unfortunately adopted as her heir, for he turned
out a traitor and the worst of her enemies, in spite

The Coronation of Joanna 203

of all the affection she lavished upon him. He was
a child of twelve at the time of his father's death.

About this time Joanna adopted her sister Maria's
youngest daughter, Margaret, whom Charles of
Durazzo afterwards married, and brought her up as
her own daughter. Maria resigned her to Joanna
the more readily because, soon after the peace
celebrations were concluded, she married a second
time, her second husband being Philip of Taranto,
the younger brother of Joanna's husband Louis.
Thus the two sisters were now married to two
brothers. The little Princess Margaret was only a
few months younger than the child Joanna had lost
on the day of her coronation, and no doubt helped
to console her for that loss. The unhappy Queen
needed consolation, for Louis of Taranto, now
there was no more fighting to be done, seems to
have grown tired of Joanna, and to have been un-
faithful to her, and given himself up to intemperance
and other vices while Acciajuoli was continuing the
war in Sicily.

It was at this time that the Neapolitan court
was at its gayest. Pageants, balls, tournaments and
banquets, and all kinds of gaiety were the order
of the day, into all of which Louis entered with such
extravagance that he ruined his constitution, and,
about three years after the defeat of the Pipini, he
died at Castel Nuovo of a fever in May, 1362, and
Joanna was left a widow for the second time.

CHAPTER XIV
Joanna's Second Widowhood

T OUIS of Taranto had the misfortune to live too
■*— ' long for his reputation, but he has also suffered
at the hands of the historian Villani, who has ex-
aggerated his vices. For the first years of his
married life he was a good husband. Twice by his
gallant fighting he saved Joanna's crown for her,
and he had shared her troubles with her at the
beginning of their joint reign, but prosperity did not
suit him. He fell into the hands of dissolute com-
panions and shared in their vicious lives, ruined his
constitution by his excesses, and died at the early
age of forty-two.

A royal widow in the Middle Ages was almost as
much to be pitied as a Hindoo widow is now. She
was condemned to lie on a bed covered with white
linen for a certain number of days, which varied in
different countries. In France the Queen was not
supposed to leave her room for a whole year after

the death of the "King, but Joanna certainly did not

204

Joanna's Second Widowhood 205

follow this example. She had to wear mourning for
a year, but white, not black, was the colour worn by
Queens for widow's mourning then. She was for-
bidden by the fashion then prevalent to wear any
jewels, gloves (at that time a great luxury), rings,
ribbons, or costly furs, and her apartments certainly
during the first three months of widowhood were
hung with deepest black — and horribly depressing
they must have been. Her dress had to be
made in fashion like that of a nun, her glorious
hair was hidden under a hood and veil, her face
shrouded in a white linen binder. Some of the
restrictions imposed upon her were removed at the
expiration of each three months during the year of
mourning, but all that time she was condemned
to live in the greatest seclusion.

It is believed that Joanna was deeply attached to
this her second husband, who had shared so many
troubles with her, and his handsome presence and
bravery and skill in all active sports were calculated
to win her affections. One of his good acts was the
founding of the first Order of knighthood in Italy,
on the first anniversary of his coronation. This was
the Order of the Knot, and was dedicated to the
Holy Spirit. The members wore a blue mantle
embroidered with golden fleur-de-lis, and jewelled
and fastened on the breast with a knot of gold and
silver. When a knight performed any feat of arms,
or achieved any knightly success, a fresh knot was

206 The Beautiful Queen

added to his mantle, and this was repeated at every
fresh victory. The two mottoes of the Order were
" Si Dieu plait " and " Au droit desir."

The same day that Louis instituted his Order of
the Knot, Joanna laid the foundation-stone of the
Incoronata Church and the hospital attached to it.
This was built on the site of the court in which the
Duke of Calabria sat when he administered the justice
for which he was so famed. During her second
widowhood she also enlarged and decorated the then
unfinished monastery of San Martino, which her
father had begun, and she also richly endowed the
monastery of the Poor Clares, in whose church
the late King and Queen, Robert and Sancha,
and Joanna's father, the Duke of Calabria, were
buried.

Joanna was most generous and charitable, and
during her reign she founded and endowed many
other churches and institutions, among others the
church and hospital of St. Anthony of Padua ; so that
one of her biographers says, " The various monu-
ments we have of her show how great must have
been her piety and religion."

There is an unfinished building in the Piazza
Mergellina, called to this day by the Neapolitans
" the palace of Queen Joanna," which is now a
beautiful ruin ; this she also began to build. She
enriched the city with many secular buildings
notable for their magnificence and good art. There

Joanna's Second Widowhood 207

were at least five first-rate Italian architects in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. To begin with
there were Giovanni and Nicholas of Pisa, Brunel-
leschi, and the two Masuccios, the second of whom
designed the monastery belfry at St. Clare.

Giotto di Bondone, who painted the frescoes in the
Church of St. Clare — begun, as we have just said, by
the late King Robert— died when Joanna was about
eleven years old, but his glorious art had been epoch-
making, and there were many of his disciples whom
she could employ to beautify the churches she built.
A rather amusing story is told of Giotto, who, as all
the world knows, was taken by Cimabue from tend-
ing his father's sheep into his own house, and trained
by him because he in passing had seen the boy's
talent displayed in drawings of his sheep with a
piece of chalk.

Giotto is said to have been remarkably ugly, and
very small, and on one occasion he was riding near
Florence with a friend, who was equally ugly, and as
celebrated as a doctor-of-law as Giotto was as an
artist, when they were overtaken by a thunderstorm
and were obliged to take shelter in a peasant's
cottage ; and as they were wet to the skin, they had
to borrow clothing of their host. Giotto looked so
sublimely ridiculous in his borrowed garments, which
were much too big for his little body, that his friend
burst out laughing and said, " Who to see you,
Giotto, would ever think you were the greatest

208 The Beautiful Queen

painter in the world ? " " And who to see you,
could ever think you knew your alphabet ? " replied
the artist.

Giotto's frescoes in the Church of St. Clare at
Naples were destroyed later by a Spanish viceroy,
who had them whitewashed to make the church
lighter — the "dim religious light" and Giotto's
delightful art not appealing to this Philistine.

Giotto was succeeded by Simon Martini, who is
mentioned by Boccaccio; but though Giotto's influence
was undoubtedly felt at Naples, there has never been
a great Neapolitan school of art, either in painting
or architecture. The two Masuccios are usually
regarded as the founders of Neapolitan sculpture,
but little that is reliable is known of them.

It was during this second widowhood that Joanna
showed her capabilities as a ruler. Her character
had now developed, and she began with both
prudence and vigour to try to restore tranquillity
to her kingdom, which was torn asunder by so many
broils and dissensions. She endeavoured to suppress
the brigands who were such a pest, and to bring
to justice the malefactors who infested the country ;
and she succeeded in accomplishing this great and
glorious task, which would have taxed the powers ot
her illustrious predecessor — the wise King Robert.

She showed great clemency and even munificence
to those who had rebelled against her, or who had
been partisans of her enemies, and forgave injuries

Joanna's Second Widowhood 209

freely ; so that Caracciola says that no prince before
her had ever acted so generously and benignly
towards the Neapolitans, that she forgot injuries
and remembered benefits, and most richly rewarded
all those who followed her adverse fortunes. He
also says that " if there exist other rulers who
have enriched individuals more richly, there are
none who equalled her in the multiplicity of her
benefits."

" Never," says this same writer, " shall we see
this city more populous than under this same Queen ;
never was the arrival of mercantile ships more
frequent than under her government and protection.
This was all due to the love she had for her people,
and the care she lavished upon them. The people
increased so fast that they almost turned the churches
into houses for them to live in. Everywhere there
was abundance of food and plenty of commerce, and
the nation enjoyed great ease and security."

This was perhaps the most prosperous part of
Joanna's reign, but the period of peace did not last
long. Her calumniators attributed every misfortune,
including the death of Louis, to the vengeance of
Heaven for the murder of her first husband,
Andrew ; and fearing that as a widow she might on
account of her great beauty be exposed to slander
and evil report, at the conclusion of the term of her
mourning for Louis, she was advised by her friends
to marry again in order to have a protector. More-

210 The Beautiful Queen

over, the nation earnestly desired that she should
have a son to inherit her crown, otherwise it was
to be feared that civil war would break out again
among the turbulent Neapolitan princes.

Soon after the death of Louis of Taranto the
Pope Innocent VI. died — indeed, one of his last
public acts was to celebrate Mass for the repose of
the soul of the late King of Naples. In the conclave
which followed his death the Cardinals were almost
as puzzled whom to choose for his successor as they
had been when his predecessor died. Their first
choice fell upon Cardinal Hugh Roger, the brother
of Clement VI., but he refused to accept the honour.
The result of the next ballot, which is piously
believed to have been the work of the Holy Spirit,
was the election of the Abb6 William de Grimoard,
a most holy man, then Abbot of the Monastery of
St. Victor, Marseilles, who was celebrated for his
great wisdom and virtue.

Although a Frenchman, he sympathised with the
claims of Rome as the seat of the Papacy, and
considered Avignon as a temporary place of residence
only, and desired to move the Chair of Peter back
to the Eternal City. At the time of his election
de Grimoard was at Naples, where he had been
sent by the Avignon Court, ostensibly to convey
messages of condolence on the death of Louis to
Joanna, but in reality to watch her conduct and
to report upon it. For five months he resided at

Joanna's Second Widowhood 211

the Neapolitan Court as the Abbot of St. Victor,
and during that time formed so high an opinion
of the Queen that he became one of her great
friends, and after he was raised to the Papal throne
he treated her with even greater respect and honour
that Clement VI. had done, and, as will appear,
bestowed honours upon her such as have never before
or since been conferred upon a woman.

Joanna's appearance when the future Pope was
residing at her court must have been very striking.
Her majestic figure was robed in pure white, and
the absence of all ornaments and artificial aids to
beauty must have given a kind of angelic severity
to her classic features. Her devotion and charity
made a great impression upon the holy Abbot, and
completely won his esteem and affection. The fact
that when he was called to the highest dignity upon
earth he found himself in a very difficult position —
as he soon saw many reforms were necessary — must
have been another link between him and the
widowed Queen, who was beset with difficulties on
all sides.

One of Joanna's first actions when she took up
the reins of government after Louis's death was to
send her trusty servant Acciajuoli to Messina to
conclude the war there by making a truce with
Frederick, after which he was counselled to return
to Naples with as many troops as he could muster
to oppose Louis's eldest brother, the Prince of

212 The Beautiful Queen

Taranto, who was intriguing to obtain her throne
for himself. He hoped that he could persuade
Joanna to allow him to administer her government
for her ; but she was much too wise to do this,
foreseeing clearly enough that if she did so she
would be a Queen in name only, while her ambi-
tious brother-in-law would be to all intents and
purposes the ruling monarch ; so she promptly deter-
mined to nip this project in the bud.

She called together a council of all her wisest
men, and absolutely refused to allow the Prince of
Taranto to have anything whatever to do with the
government of her kingdom, and the Prince, find-
ing his efforts were useless, retired in high dudgeon
to his own estates. This and other similar cir-
cumstances made it imperative that Joanna should
marry a third time, and there was no lack of suitors.
The King of France was very anxious that she
should choose his son Philip, the Duke of Tours,
for whom such a marriage would have been most
advantageous ; but he was ten or twelve years
younger than Joanna, and she very wisely considered
that a barrier which could not have been got over
had there been no other objections to such a match.
John, the French King, endeavoured to get the
new Pope Urban V. to support this proposal; but
Joanna, dreading the difficulties and quarrels in
which the inexperience and youth of the boyish
Duke of Tours and the haughtiness of his courtiers

Joanna's Second Widowhood 213

would probably involve her, most wisely declined
the offer.

One of the handsomest princes at this time
about the Neapolitan Court was James III. of
Majorca, a king without a kingdom. Majorca, the
largest of the Balearic Isles, had been taken from
the Saracens about the year 1230 by James I., King
of Aragon, and by him erected into a kingdom ;
the other Balearic Isles, together with the two
counties of Roussillon and Moritpellier being de-
pendent upon it.

James II. of Aragon in 1295 married an
Angevine princess, the daughter of Charles II. of
Anjou, by whom he had two sons, Pedro and
James. The elder succeeded him as King of
Aragon under the title of Pedro III., and the
younger as King of Aragon under the title of
James I. of Majorca ; they were always at war with
each other, and left the quarrel as an inheritance
to their sons, Pedro IV. of Aragon and James II.
of Majorca.

In 1349 Pedro IV., surnamed the Ceremonious,
succeeded in despoiling his brother of the kingdom
of Majorca, in a battle in which James II., as some
assert, was killed, and his son James III. was taken
prisoner. He was in captivity for many years, but
at last succeeded in effecting his escape, and went
to Naples, where he was one of the most attractive
members of that gay court. It was upon him that

214 The Beautiful Queen

the choice of Joanna and her council fell as the most
suitable candidate for her hand.

The conditions imposed upon the nominal King
of Majorca were that he should possess of Joanna's
dominions the Dukedom of Calabria only, and that
he was not to expect to have any share in the govern-
ment, nor to assume the title of King, but to wait
the Queen's pleasure to bestow either of these
privileges upon him, in case their marriage should
be blessed with children or even one child to in-
herit the throne. The fact that Montpellier and
Roussillon were adjacent to Joanna's Provencal
possessions made James more acceptable to the
Queen's advisers, as they were valuable adjuncts
to her French dominions.

James raised no objections to the conditions —
indeed, notwithstanding them, Joanna was the most
brilliant match he could have found in all Europe —
and the marriage was duly celebrated with all
the pomp and magnificence which had graced the
Queen's former weddings.

Some writers say that James's father was not
slain on the battlefield, but was kept a prisoner
by Pedro, and that three months after his marriage
James heard his father had been treacherously
murdered in prison, and that he at once left Naples
for Spain with all the troops he could muster to
avenge his father's death.

However this may be, whether the King was

Joanna's Second Widowhood 215

slain in battle or in prison, it is certain that James
III. set out very shortly after his marriage with
Joanna to try to recover his kingdom. Joanna
was not able to render him much assistance in this
expedition, for she was obliged to send a force to
defend her Provencal dominions from the inroads
of the Dukes of Milan and Savoy, who were in
league together to deprive her of them. The
prompt measures which Joanna took, and the fidelity
of her Provencal subjects, soon succeeded in de-
feating the two Dukes, but her husband was less
successful in his campaign against the King of
Aragon.

After three months' wedded happiness Joanna
was, to all intents and purposes, again a widow,
at least a grass widow, for her husband was absent
almost the whole of their married life, and frequently
she did not know whether he was alive or dead.
The means of communication were slow and by no
means sure, and the life of James was fraught
with so many adventures on the battlefield and
in captivity that it was exceedingly difficult for the
Queen to obtain reliable information as to his
movements.

There is a long account of James III. and his
exploits in Froissart's Chronicles, but his account
of Joanna has been proved to be so inaccurate that
it will not do to place too much reliance upon
his tales of the adventures of her third husband.

216 The Beautiful Queen

Of certain facts, however, there seems to be little
doubt — at any rate, most historians repeat them as
true.

He appears to have fought for three or four
years against the King of Aragon quite unsuccess-
fully, and then to have fled to Bordeaux, where
the Prince of Wales was then residing, and to
have joined him. According to Froissart, this was
in 1367, and he says that while James was
with the Black Prince in Bordeaux the Princess
of Wales gave birth to a son, who afterwards
succeeded to the English throne as Richard II.
The little Prince was baptized in the church of
St. Andrew, in Bordeaux, and the King of Majorca
was one of his god-fathers. Froissart says the
Prince of Wales received James well and treated
him handsomely, " for he was a stranger, and far
from his own country, and his finances were low."
Edward then joined Peter the Cruel, King of Castile,
in an expedition in Spain, and he promised to restore
James to his kingdom if he would accompany him
on this campaign, which turned out to be a brilliant
success. In this splendid expedition, in which the
Black Prince won such great honour, James of
Majorca fought side by side with him.

At the end of the campaign the Prince of Wales
went to Valladolid, or, as Froissart calls it, the
Vale of Olives, translating the Spanish word ; and
there the heat was so great that they were all more

Joanna's Second Widowhood 217

or less affected by it, and James was so ill that
when the Prince of Wales moved on he was con-
fined to his bed, and had to be left behind. The
Black Prince sent some of his English knights to
the King of Majorca to tell him his troops were
suffering so much from the heat that he was obliged
to leave Spain, and to ask if he wished to go with
them.

James replied that he was so ill that he could
not lift his foot to the stirrup ; and on being asked
if he would like some men-at-arms left behind as
a guard, he declined, saying it was uncertain how
long he might be forced to remain there. Peter
the Cruel turned out a perfidious ally, failing to
keep all his engagements, and proving himself a
most ungrateful friend ; for as soon as the English
army had left all the towns they had reconquered,
he went back to his brother, Henry of Transtamare,
who marched to Valladolid, where he heard the
King of Majorca, his bitter enemy, was lying con-
fined to his bed, to take advantage of his weakness
and make him a prisoner. James at once asked
whether Henry would make him his own prisoner
or whether he intended to send him to the King
of Aragon, as he would rather die than fall into
his hands.

Henry replied that on no account would he act
so disloyally as to send him to his greatest enemy,
but would retain him as his own prisoner until

2i 8 The Beautiful Queen

he was either ransomed or it pleased him to set
him at liberty. James now found means of com-
municating his plight to Joanna, who, as soon as
she heard of it, set about raising the money for
his ransom and finding trusty messengers to nego-
tiate the business. She succeeded in procuring his
ransom at an immense cost, which, Froissart says,
was paid so graciously that the King of Castile
thanked her for it.

Directly he was released from his captivity James
returned to Naples, but he was so bent on revenge
against the King of Aragon that he only remained
with Joanna long enough to collect men and arms
and money sufficient to carry out another campaign,
which he set out upon much against Joanna's wish —
if we are to credit Froissart, who says Joanna wished
and counselled her husband to join his forces with
her cousin, the King of France, instead of with the
English under the Prince of Wales. He resisted
all her arguments and entreaties to remain with her
in Naples and abandon the hope of recovering his
own very small kingdom ; but James was obstinate,
and would not be persuaded, so the Queen yielded
to his wishes, and gave orders that as he passed
through Provence the highest honours should be
paid him, and a sum of 10,000 golden florins given
him for his expenses, which, seeing that he was
disregarding her wishes, seems very handsome
treatment.

Joanna's Second Widowhood 219

Before we record the end of his somewhat
mythical, or at least very uncertain, fortunes, we
must make mention of a characteristically mediaeval
incident which occurred to Joanna about this time.
At a large and, as it was called, " solemn ball,"
which Joanna held at Gaeta, at which she was the
admired of all eyes, there was present Galeazzo
of Mantua, one of the most accomplished Italian
princes of the time, and Joanna chose him as her
partner in one of the dances.

Joanna was a beautiful dancer, and Galeazzo also
excelled in this art ; and at the conclusion of the
dance he knelt before the majestic Joanna, who
was now about forty and a magnificent creature,
and thanked her humbly for the honour she had
so graciously bestowed upon him in allowing him
to be her partner, and then and there he made a
solemn vow that he would not rest until he had
found and challenged and defeated two valiant
knights, to give to her as a present.

Joanna replied, "that in good time, and by the
grace of God, he should accomplish his vow, since
such was his pleasure and the custom of knighthood."

Galeazzo then travelled half over Europe, going
to France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and other
countries where the flower of knighthood was to
be met — we do not hear that he went to Eng-
land — and having found two knights worthy of
his prowess, he challenged, fought, and defeated

220 The Beautiful Queen

them, and brought them captive to Naples at the
end of the year following the solemn ball at Gaeta.

Arrived at Naples he sought an audience, and
genuflecting before the Queen, he presented the
two captive knights to her. Joanna thanked him
cordially, congratulating him upon having accom-
plished his vow so gallantly, and then thus ad-
dressed the knights :

"Sirs, you are, as you see, my prisoners. By
the laws of chivalry, I may cause such as are in
your captive condition to serve me in any ignoble
office I may best please ; but I think you will judge
by my countenance that cruelty does not dwell in
my heart, to dispose of the unfortunate in such a
manner. Of my clemency then, and humanity, I
give you from this hour entire liberty and franchise
to act as you please, whether to return free to your
own country, or, before you depart, to solace your-
selves in my kingdom, and view the curiosities of
it, which are sufficiently admirable. After having
visited them return to me, and when you choose to
depart I shall be well pleased to commend you to God."

We of the twentieth century, whose ideas are so
different, can hardly imagine such a scene as this
ever taking place ; but in mediaeval days redeemed
slaves and prisoners and the vanquished became so
much the property of their purchasers and con-
querors that they were frequently disposed of by
will. A few years later Joanna redeemed a Tartar

Joanna's Second Widowhood 221

princess from slavery, and sent her as a present to
her friend, St. Bridget of Sweden, the widowed
Princess of Nericia, who was then dying in Rome.
This extraordinary present arrived just after the
death of the saint had taken place ; but the captive
was adopted by Bridget's daughter, St. Catherine,
who took her to Sweden, where she became a nun in
the convent of Wadstena, in the Order founded by
St. Bridget, and died herself in the odour of sanctity.

Many of these captives and conquered knights
were less fortunate, and did not meet with such
clemency as Joanna showed her two prisoners.
Brantdme records the fate of a vanquished knight,
whom his conqueror bestowed upon the canons of
St. Peter's Church in Rome, with his arms, his
horse, his armour and trappings ; and says that
they kept the unfortunate man a prisoner in the
church for the remainder of his life, which he spent
in walking to and fro, his recreation being to stand
at the open door, whose threshold he never passed,
and watch the traffic outside. The laws of chivalry
were so binding on the honour of all knights that
this one could not break his parole, but was obliged
to submit to his sad fate.

Prisoners of war were treated more or less as
the personal property of their conquerors, even in
Christian Europe, until the institution of standing
armies, when they passed under the care of the
State to which they belonged.

CHAPTER XV

The Death of Acciajuoli

r T~ , HE shadows in Joanna's life were beginning
-*■ to deepen again ; the prolonged absence of
the man she had married to guard her fair name
and be a helpmeet to her was a source of grave
anxiety and trouble, for she did not know whether
he was alive or dead, in prison or at large.

About this time — that is, in the summer of 1367
— there arrived in Naples the celebrated prophetess
and mystic, the afterwards canonised Saint Bridget
of Sweden, with her beautiful young daughter
Catherine, also a widow, her friend Nicholas Orsini,
and a small band of Swedish pilgrims in her train.
The Neapolitan nobility vied with each other in
their eagerness to show hospitality to the Swedish
Princess, the fame of whose sanctity and of her
visions and her prophesies and revelations had
already reached them, for they were the talk of
Europe.

The honour of entertaining so distinguished a

The Death of Acciajuoli 223

visitor fell upon Jacqueline nee Acciajuoli, sister to
Nicholas Acciajuoli, the Grand Seneschal of Naples,
and wife to the Count Buondelmonte. The
Countess was a very devout woman, and the simple
austerity of her menage, together with her high rank
and the important place she occupied at the
Neapolitan Court, made her house peculiarly
agreeable to the Princess of Nericia. From the
Countess the saint learnt the story of Joanna's life,
the murder of Andrew and its consequences, her
second marriage with Louis of Taranto, and her third
nuptials with the handsome King of Majorca ; she
heard too of the brilliancy of Joanna's court, of the
splendour of her banquets, " solemn balls," " Court
of Love," tournaments, and other entertainments,
renowned all over Europe for their magnificence ;
she heard of the envies and jealousies, of the
quarrels and constant warfare of the royal princes
of the houses of Durazzo and Taranto, of the
feuds between the nobles : and, as she had already
admonished and threatened with divine vengeance
Magnus II., King of Sweden, and his Queen
Blanche, of whose gay court she had once
been Grand Mistress, she now determined to
try to reform Joanna's court, and preach repent-
ance to the Queen herself and to all her gay
courtiers.

St. Bridget was a great reformer, not only of
monasteries and convents, of monks and nuns, of

224 The Beautiful Queen

bishops and clergy, but she had not scrupled to
remonstrate with the Popes for their residence at
Avignon, and was at this moment on the verge
of inducing Urban V. by her counsels to return to
Rome.

Joanna, who if she liked gaiety was nevertheless
a devout and faithful Catholic, was anxious to see
the mystic, of whom she had heard so much, and
with whom she had corresponded. The Queen
had probably read some of St. Bridget's Revelations,
and soon after the arrival of the Swedish pilgrims
an audience was arranged.

The saint, who was of very small stature, and was
clad in a nunlike costume of coarse serge, with a
black veil on her head, which hid her still glorious
golden hair — which is said to have clothed her like
a mantle when unbound — was presented by the
Countess Buondelmonte to the majestic Neapolitan
Queen, who was dressed in her usual magnificent
style, and was surrounded by a group of admiring
courtiers equally magnificently attired, many of
whom were in love with her and all were ready to
die in her cause.

St. Bridget then presented her daughter Catherine,
clad also in the nunlike widow's dress of the period,
who was herself so beautiful that several Roman
noblemen had attempted to carry her off by force
in Rome. But Catherine and Joanna never seem to
have liked each other, whereas in spite of St. Bridget's

The Death of Acciajuoli 225

most severe admonishments, Joanna became greatly
attached to her, and promised the saint to reform
her court, and to lead a much stricter life in future.
A sort of religious revival in Naples seems to have
been the outcome of this visit of the Swedish saint
to that city. She became the rage : the Neapolitan
nobles willingly left their palaces to stand with the
poor and infirm who besieged the Buondelmonte
mansion, to wait their turn for an interview with the
prophetess. They and their wives and daughters
took to visiting the poor and the hospitals and
tending the sick as Bridget and Catherine were wont
to do in Rome ; the reported miracles wrought by
St. Bridget in healing the sick created a great
sensation ; the churches were crowded. In short,
Naples went from one extreme to the other, from
the extreme of gaiety to the opposite pole of
devotion, and, as might have been expected, after
the departure of the saint relapsed into its former
normal condition.

But before the Swedish pilgrims quitted Naples
St. Bridget established her claims to the gift of
prophecy in a remarkable manner.

She was sitting with Jacqueline Acciajuoli one day,
when she suddenly told her that the days of her
brother Nicholas, the Grand Seneschal of the king-
dom, were already numbered, and his death imminent.
Greatly shocked, Jacqueline, who was devoted to her
brother, at once went in search of him, and found

15

226 The Beautiful Queen

him with the Queen, treating with her concerning
the ransom of her husband the King of Majorca,
then in captivity in Spain. Nicholas was apparently
in excellent health ; he was only about fifty-six, and
a strong man, but that very night he was taken
suddenly and seriously ill. St. Bridget was sent for,
and watched and prayed at his bedside, where she
fell into one of her ecstasies, and received one of the
revelations for which she was so famous, which
she afterwards wrote down and gave to her confessor
to translate into Latin.

The Grand Seneschal died in her presence after
receiving the Last Sacraments, her exhortations and
prayers having moved him to deep repentance for
the sins of his past life. His death took place on
October 25th, 1367, a few days after St. Bridget
had prophesied that it was imminent.

He was buried in the magnificent Carthusian
monastery near Florence, which he had built, and
to which he had already sent a library of very
valuable manuscripts, having hoped soon to retire
from office and end his days in peace and retirement
there. The cause of his death is described as the
bursting of an abscess in his head, but the vague
and scanty medical knowledge of the times cannot
be relied upon for a right diagnosis of his somewhat
mysterious end. Perhaps it was an attack of menin-
gitis. His death was a most serious loss to the
Queen, for he was one of her most faithful coun-

From an engraving by B. Holl, after an original painting.
JOANNA THE FIRST,

Queen of Naples.

p. 2261

The Death of Acciajuoli 227

sellors and servants, and one of the most distinguished
men living during her reign. He was also a very
devout man, most charitable and generous to the
Church.

On one occasion he quarrelled with John Barrili,
also a very able man, a poet and a great favourite
of the late King Robert, who chose him as his
proxy on the occasion of the crowning of Petrarch
with laurel in the Capitol. Petrarch heard of this
quarrel from the Bishop of Florence, on the occasion
already mentioned on which he dined with the poet.
" I am grieved at this quarrel ; you are the friend of
both, and should make it up between them," said
the Bishop.

Petrarch undertook the task of reconciliation, and
set about it in a somewhat elaborate fashion, though
one that was highly characteristic of him. He wrote
three long letters — a private one for each of the
offended friends, and one to both united to be
opened only by the two together and read. All
three letters urged the strongest reasons for their
reconciliation, and he ended the private epistles by
hoping that they would give a whole day to the
reading of the third letter. This happened many
years before the Grand Seneschal's death, for they
were dated May 24th, 1352. The Bishop undertook
to deliver the letters, and some months afterwards he
wrote to Petrarch to tell him his letters had had the
desired effect, and a reconciliation had taken place.

228 The Beautiful Queen

Acciajuoli left four sons by his wife Margareta,
besides two adopted children.

Soon after Acciajuoli's death King John of France,
having failed to secure Joanna's hand for his son,
made an attempt to take Provence from her by
force ; but her wisdom and tact again stood her in
good stead, and the Pope supported her so zealously
and her Provencal subjects showed such fidelity to
her, that the Duke of Anjou, who had based his
claims on some rights which he supposed had
accrued to him through the ancient Kings of Aries,
was defeated at the end of six months, although
during this time he had offered the largest bribes
to the Provencal barons to tempt them and corrupt
their allegiance to Joanna. One of these barons,
Rainier of Grimaldis, Prince of Morguez, behaved
with great loyalty to Joanna ; she had given him
a present of 4,000 florins for recapturing Tarascon
for her. The Duke of Anjou offered to give
Grimaldis the same sum annually if he would go
over to the French side, but he refused with scorn
to consider such treachery to his Queen.

Even at Avignon the influence of the Anglo-
French war was felt, and the policy of John of
France was galling to the French Pope. Urban V.
now made a league with the King of Hungary,
Joanna, and others against the Viscontis, who had
for years been in rebellion against the Holy See.
Barnabas Visconti, who was renowned for his cruelty

The Death of Acciajuoli 229

and the exorbitant demands he made upon the Pope,
when he heard of this league, said, "They are all
children ; I will have them all whipped."

Ambrose Visconti this same year entered Naples
with what was then considered an enormous force
of 1,200 lancers, each of whom had a number of
followers who were not counted in estimating the
size of Visconti's army. They seized on a portion
of the Abruzzi, and robbed and plundered the in-
habitants without mercy.

Joanna sent only a small force at first against
Ambrose (who was called the Bastard of Milan),
under Giovanni Malateca ; but finding this was
insufficient, she summoned all the veterans who
had formerly served under her late husband, Louis
of Taranto, and riding out to meet them addressed
an eloquent speech to them, exhorting them to do
their utmost to deliver their country as speedily as
possible from these cruel barbarians who were killing
their countrymen and ruining the land by their
rapine.

She then wrote to the chief barons in her kingdom
to the same effect, and so successfully that in a
few months the Milanese army was cut up, only
between two and three thousand of Visconti's men
escaping from the country ; while Ambrose Visconti
himself was taken prisoner, and confined in one of
the Neapolitan castles, Castel Nuovo, for ten years.
Some writers have blamed Joanna for treating this

230 The Beautiful Queen

enemy with too great severity, but he was such a
dangerous, turbulent man that he was better in cap-
tivity than free.

Urban V. now issued a Bull of Excommunication
against the Visconti, and sent two legates with it
to Galeazzo Visconti ; but he not only paid no atten-
tion to this sentence, but forced the two legates to
eat in his presence the parchment on which the
Bull was written, and also the seals, which are said
to have been leaden, and the cords.

It seems that about this same year, 1367, Joanna
heard of the death of her husband, James of Majorca;
but according to Mr. Baddeley, who has written
a most scholarly essay on the Life and Times of
Joanna, 1 his death occurred much later than this.
This writer says that James's death took place at
Soria, in a Franciscan monastery there, in the year

1375-

Caraccioli puts his death at 1368, and Froissart

says it took place at sea on his voyage home from

Spain to Naples about 1376. Whether alive or

dead he was dead to Joanna from the time he left

her after she had ransomed him, and for many

years she was unaware of his fate, which was a

cause of great anxiety to her. From 1367 reports

were coming constandy to Naples that he was dead,

and they did Joanna much harm in many ways.

1 " Queen Joanna I., An Essay on her Times," by St. Clair
Baddeley. London, 1893.

The Death of Acciajuoli 231

Those pests the freebooters no sooner heard that
she was again a widow than some of their com-
panies, of which Ambrose Visconti's was one, laid
plans for the invasion of Naples ; but after he was
taken prisoner Joanna enjoyed a period of com-
parative rest and peace, during a reign which has
been described as one long effort to keep her
throne.

Her wisdom and prudence, however, succeeded
in suppressing brigandage and robbery till the caves
of Calabria were as safe, we are told, as her own
palace. To accomplish this she had to exercise
severity, and a royal edict was passed ordering that
when a band of brigands or marauders was taken,
who had been strong enough to fortify themselves
in any castle, they were to be publicly executed
as criminals, and this had a salutary effect, which
Boccaccio thus describes :

" The rich man as well as the poor could traverse
by night or day with perfect security not only towns
and villages, but also the wildest forests, mountains,
or caverns, and this the predecessors of Joanna were
either not willing or not able to accomplish. And
what is not less salutary, by the modesty of her own
manners she has reformed the licentiousness of her
nobility, and so curbed their pride that those who
formerly paid little regard to their kings, to-day
dread the frown of an offended woman."

Robbery was the most prominent vice of Europe

232 The Beautiful Queen

at this time, and it existed in greater excess in many
parts of Italy than elsewhere ; even in the time of
the good King Robert, Naples was notorious for
its thieves. So little was then thought of it that
what was called " living by the saddle " was quite
a gentlemanly profession in most European countries.
Joanna did completely away with this reproach as
far as Naples was concerned, and did all she could
to help and civilise (her people by encouraging
commerce. To this end she built four streets to
accommodate the inhabitants of the four nations
who traded most with the capital, namely, the Pro-
vencals, the Spaniards, the Venetians,, and the
Genoese.

Naples under Joanna's rule became the favourite
port of traders, partly for the security of the roads,
partly for the exemption from all taxation and from
any forced loans, which in no emergencies would
she ever suffer to be levied. The city was supplied
not only with all the necessaries of life, but also
with luxuries from foreign countries, for Joanna
was a liberal patroness of every kind of art. In
a catalogue of the furniture, etcetera, of Fonthill
Abbey there is mentioned a magnificent Oriental
china vase, the earliest specimen of its kind known
in Europe, which once belonged to Joanna, whose
arms are engraved upon it.

She took pride in making her court as celebrated
as King Robert's had been for learned and scientific

The Death of Acciajuoli 233

men, whom she freely admitted to her society in
private life as well as at court. Boccaccio, who
after Petrarch was the most celebrated of her con-
temporaries in literature, says, " She was so gracious,
gentle, compassionate, and kind that she seemed
rather the companion than the Queen of those
around her."

In those days theology ranked first of all studies,
but after that law was the most esteemed in Joanna's
court, for her first care was to protect the poor
against the rich, the weak against the strong ; and
for this purpose she consulted the most eminent
barristers and lawyers the University of Naples
could supply. There were three most famous juris-
consults whom Joanna commanded in an edict,
using the language of her period, should be revered
in her dominions " as a human Trinity when in-
terpreting the laws." These three were Luke of
Penna, Andrew of Isernia, and Nicholas of Naples,
all very famous men. After the death of Andrew
of Isernia, Joanna in all difficult questions used to
apply to the most celebrated foreign legal authori-
ties for advice. Baldus of Perugia and Angelus of
the same city, on whom the most extravagant terms
of praise were lavished, were two of these, and
both were enthusiastic admirers of the Queen of
Sicily, not only as a wise sovereign and legislatrix,
but also as a beautiful woman and a most charming
companion.

234 The Beautiful Queen

Astrology was in the Middle Ages studied with
astronomy, and at Naples there was a chair of
astrology at the University, as well as for other
sciences. Much faith was placed in casting of
horoscopes and the observation of the stars, which
were supposed to foretell the destinies of men and
women. Diseases were also believed to be in-
fluenced by the celestial bodies, and in consequence
physicians were generally astrologers, but the mass
of the medical profession in those days were what
we a century ago should have called quacks.
Petrarch had very little faith in the prescriptions
of the doctors of his time. He says, "The
moment I see a physician I know beforehand what
he will say to me, ' Eat young poultry, drink warm
water, use the remedy the stork has taught us.' "

They might and did give worse advice than to
eat young poultry and to drink warm water, but
what the cryptic allusion to the teaching of the
stork may mean we do not know, and perhaps we
had better not inquire. Two lessons taught by
the stork certainly might be followed with advan-
tage — to be good mothers, and to take care of our
parents in their old age. Fruit was a prohibited
article of diet in sickness in the Middle Ages, but
Petrarch struck at this medical advice, and laments
that physicians seemed to regard it as equally
poisonous with henbane and aconite.

Watches and clocks were in use at this period,

The Death of Acciajuoli 235

but the pendulum was not invented until the time
of Galileo ; until then it was the dial which revolved.
Spectacles were also in common use. One of the
most celebrated inventions of Joanna's reign is said
to have been the mariner's compass ; the first that
was constructed in Europe was made by Gioja
Flavio, a mathematician of Amain, near Naples ;
but the idea is believed to have been brought from
China by Marco Polo in the thirteenth century,
and the Chinese had probably understood the use
of it for two thousand years before. Flavio's com-
pass had eight points only, and the arms of the
district in which he was born bear a compass with
eight points in memory of him.

The most celebrated theologian in Joanna's king-
dom was Paris of Pozzuoli, who has left a most
enthusiastic panegyric upon Joanna behind him ;
but perhaps if the Queen of Naples had been con-
sulted she would have desired no higher compli-
ment than to be called, as she so emphatically is,
" the friend of Petrarch and Boccaccio," and equally
the friend of two Popes, Clement VI. and Urban V.

CHAPTER XVI
Urban V- returns to Rome

WE now come to the most important con-
temporary event of Joanna's reign, for it
affected all Christendom — the return of the Pope to
Rome. Urban V. had always regarded his residence
at Avignon as only a temporary measure ; the
interests of the Church, the exhortations of St.
Bridget, the terrible state of Rome during the
absence of the Supreme Pontiff, the prayers
and wishes of all his Italian subjects, all com-
bined to induce him to make up his mind in the
beginning of the year 1367 to leave Avignon for
Rome.

He was vehemently opposed in this way by all
the French Cardinals, who formed the majority of
the Sacred College, for they were unwilling to leave
their magnificent residences on the banks of the
Rhone, and the luxurious and brilliant life at the

236

Urban V. returns to Rome 237

It is said that Urban's mother, who lived with
him at Avignon was so concerned at his deter-
mination to depart from thence that she threw
herself on the ground at his feet, and declared
that he should not leave the Papal palace unless
he trod over her body. But Urban, when once
he felt it his duty to return to Rome, suffered no
obstacle to stand in his way, not even his mother's
dramatic opposition ; and quoting the text, "he shall
tread on the asp and the basilisk," he passed on,
leaving the asp or the basilisk to rise from her lowly
attitude.

The first stage of his journey was Marseilles. Here
the galleys which he had commanded Joanna, and
the Genoese, and the Venetians to provide for him
met him ; and the French Cardinals are said to have
vented their grief at leaving France in loud cries
and lamentations, and their anger in opprobrious
language to the venerable Pontiff, who paid no
attention, but calmly ordered the sailors to set sail
for Genoa, where they met with a splendid reception
from all the princes and ambassadors, who were
assembled on the shore and knelt to receive the
Papal benediction.

Here under the blue Italian sky, on an improvised
altar, Urban celebrated his first Mass in Italy, in the
presence of an enormous crowd of people. At its
Papal Court at Avignon, for the unhealthy palace
in the squalid and disorderly streets of Rome.

238 The Beautiful Queen

conclusion he proceeded on his journey to Rome,
and, after some opposition at Viterbo, he reached the
Eternal City on October 16th.

At his entry into Rome, more than two thousand
bishops, abbots, and priors accompanied him ; his
white courser was led by Italian princes, while
eleven French cardinals followed, resigned and
melancholy, in his train. The bells of the city rang
joyously, the great doors of St. Peter's were thrown
open, cries of " Evviva il Papa ! " rent the air, and
then the Holy Father gave the blessing " Urbi
et Orbi " from the balcony over the Golden Door.

For over a year Urban resided in Rome, the
object of the greatest veneration in his spiritual
capacity, for which his personal sanctity so well
fitted him ; but in his temporal office as Sovereign of
the city of Rome and of the Papal States he met
with obstinate and insolent disobedience. During
his residence in Rome, at the beginning of Lent,
1368, Joanna went to Rome to visit the Pope.
She went partly from a pious desire to pay her
homage to the Holy Father in his capital, partly
to confer with him as her best friend and most
competent adviser, on the subject of her successor.
Her sister Maria, who, although now the wife of
Philip of Taranto, retained, as she was entitled to
do, her higher title of Duchess of Durazzo, died
about this time ; and, as Joanna had no children,
Maria, according to the will of their grandfather,

Urban V. returns to Rome 239

the late King Robert, was the heiress to her sister's
throne. It is true that the Duchess of Durazzo
had three daughters ; but by the custom and law
of the age, they had no right to a throne which
their mother had never actually possessed.

There now remained no descendants in the main
line of Charles of Anjou except Louis of Hungary
and Charles of Durazzo, son of Louis, Count of
Gravina, of whose education, as we have said before,
Joanna had taken charge. She had been a mother
to this young Prince, who turned out so ungrateful,
and as soon as he attained his majority he accepted
an invitation from Joanna's greatest enemy, Louis,
King of Hungary, to fight with him against the
Venetians, with whom he was now at war. Joanna
disapproved of this most strongly ; but Charles
disregarded her wishes, and this fact made her
hesitate to adopt him as her heir, for she knew
Louis hated her, and would probably poison her
nephew's mind against her.

We can imagine how deeply this conduct of
Charles must have wounded Joanna, for there are
few things more galling than when those we have
believed to be our friends become intimate with our
enemies ; and Joanna had been far more than a
friend to Charles of Durazzo. She had been his
benefactress and a foster-mother to him who now
behaved in this mean and ungrateful way to her —
which, indeed, was but a prelude to the lower

240 The Beautiful Queen

depths of treachery and baseness to which he
afterwards sank.

Joanna made the journey as far as Ostia by sea,
and the remainder of the way by land, sometimes
riding on horseback, sometimes being carried in a
litter, but with great pomp and attended by a mag-
nificent train of knights and followers. This visit,
which brought her so much honour, was perhaps
the happiest period of her life ; she had left her
kingdom at peace and in a prosperous condition,
owing to her wise government, so she had no
anxiety about that in the background to mar her
delight in the spiritual and artistic treasures of
Rome.

Peter of Lusignan, King of Cyprus, met her at
a little distance from the gates of the city, and
conducted her under a rich canopy of state to the
Porta S. Pietro. Here she was met by the
cardinals, clergy, and principal nobles of Rome, who
were waiting to receive her and attend her to the
steps of St. Peter's Church. Urban V. in full
pontificals was waiting here, and as she approached,
he, wishing to confer a very great mark of honour
upon her, descended some of the steps to meet this
majestic Queen and woman.

Joanna dismounted from her horse, and made the
three customary genuflections to the Holy Father,
who raised her from her knees and led her into
the church, up the nave to the tombs of the holy

Urban V. returns to Rome 241

apostles Peter and Paul, to pay her devotions at
their shrine. An enormous crowd had been assem-
bled outside the church in the Piazza to watch
her arrival, and some of the people followed the
procession into the church on this unique occasion.

Urban V. was a greater friend to Joanna than
his predecessor Clement VI. had been ; and since
he became a canonised saint of the church, and
during his lifetime was noted for his holiness, this
friendship and respect, this affection and esteem of
the Sovereign Pontiff, should have silenced the lips
of all her detractors ; for we may be sure that had
there been truth in their vile reports, Urban V.
would never have countenanced her, far less would
he have demonstrated his regard for her in the
public way he did. During her stay in Rome he
showed her every public mark of honour it was in
his power to bestow.

For the second time in her life Joanna, on Letare
Sunday, received the Golden Rose — this time from
Urban V. after he had blessed it and worn it during
Mass. To the surprise of all present, the Pope,
at the conclusion of High Mass, turned to the
Queen of Naples, who was near him, and presented
her with this coveted honour. It is said that the
Cardinals afterwards remonstrated with him because
he had preferred Joanna to the King of Cyprus,
who was also present, and objected that she was the
first woman who had ever received this favour.

16

242 The Beautiful Queen

Urban is reported to have replied in a severe
tone, which did not encourage any more remon-
strance on the part of the Cardinals : " There were
exceptions to all rules, and who had ever before
heard of a poor Abbot of St. Victor at Marseilles
being Pope ? "

On Easter Sunday Urban lavished yet a greater
favour upon Joanna. He presented her with the
blessed hat and sword, but she, with her customary
tact and grace, noticing the deep mortification of
the King of Cyprus, asked the Pope to bestow the
sword upon him, and Urban consenting, she gave
it to Peter of Lusignan with her own fair hands,
thus enhancing the gift, and retained for herself the
pearl-embroidered hat.

Joanna remained in Rome until after the Easter
ceremonies were over, and in the meantime, in the
course of her interviews with Urban, had come to
the decision that the best way out of the difficult
question of the succession to her throne would be
to arrange a marriage between her adopted daughter
Margaret, her sister Maria's youngest child, and
Charles Durazzo, and then, if she found on his
return from Louis of Hungary that he was still
loyal to her, to leave the crown to him and
Margaret.

The two elder daughters of Maria were already
married — Joanna, the Duchess of Durazzo, to
Robert of Artois, and Agnes to Can della Scala,

Urban V. returns to Rome 243

Prince of Verona ; and the Queen knew that to leave
her crown to either of them so long as Charles
Durazzo lived would be to leave them and her
kingdom an inheritance of civil war, so she asked
Urban for a dispensation to enable her adopted
daughter, Margaret, to marry her cousin, Charles
Durazzo.

On leaving Rome she did not return to Naples
at once, but went to Provence and worked there
on reforming the laws of that country and Piedmont,
and as soon as this was accomplished went back
to her capital and celebrated with befitting pomp
the marriage of her adopted daughter and Charles
Durazzo. Joanna was strongly attached to her
nephew, who was, externally at least, a very attractive
man, with winning manners which effectually con-
cealed his falseness and cruelty. He was a fine
soldier, brave to rashness, and though of small
stature he had defeated in single combat soon after
he went to Hungary a gigantic Hungarian knight
whom no other man had dared to challenge, and
from that time he bore the head of an elephant
as his crest, because that had formerly belonged
to his vanquished foe.

Charles was very generous, especially to men of
letters whom he patronised, and his conduct at
this time was so irreproachable that Joanna un-
fortunately was deceived by it ; and after his
marriage with Margaret she issued a proclamation

244 The Beautiful Queen

of her intention of bequeathing her crown to the
newly married Prince and Princess, and to their
issue. What must have been her feelings when
very soon after this Charles returned to the service
of the King of Hungary, on whose support he
calculated should Joanna change her intentions with
regard to her heirs ?

Meanwhile Urban V. was finding the turbulent
state of Rome and the deleterious effect of the
unhealthy climate upon his health so unbearable
that he resolved to return to Avignon, a measure
which the Italian Cardinals opposed as strongly as
the French had objected to his leaving it. The
Pope again applied to the Queen of Naples to
furnish him with galleys for the voyage, which
she willingly supplied.

St. Bridget of Sweden, hearing of the Pope's
intention of returning to France, demanded an
audience, and informed the venerable Pontiff that
it had been revealed to her by Our Lady that if
he returned to Avignon he would die very shortly
after.

Urban paid no attention to this prophecy ;
having made up his mind that he was acting for
the best in removing the Papal Court back to
Avignon, he was not to be deterred from carrying
out his intention by what he considered might
possibly be a delusion on the Swedish mystic's
part. However that may be, it is certain that

URBAN THE FIFTH.

p. 244]

Urban V. returns to Rome 245

he lived only a few months after his return to
France.

When he felt his end approaching he ordered the
doors of his palace to be thrown open that all might
see him die as he lay, in his Benedictine habit which
he always wore, stretched on a wretched low bed
with his crucifix in his feeble hands, making acts
of humble contrition for all the sins of his past life.
His death took place on December 19th, 1370.
He was very infirm when St. Bridget uttered her
prophecy, but he died of some unknown malady.
He was deeply regretted by the Italians as well
as by the French.

No less than eight hundred princes and nobles
attended the Requiem sung at Bologna for his soul,
and he was invoked as a saint immediately after it
was celebrated, before his cause of canonisation began.

All the sovereigns of Europe, from Magnus II.
of Sweden and Waldemar of Denmark in the north
to Joanna in the south, demanded his canonisation,
and his cause was greatly helped by the numerous
miracles attributed to him, in an age when more
faith was placed in miracles than in our sceptical
time, and by his great sanctity, for he is said even
by Protestant historians to have been a model of
virtue. He made several greatly needed reforms
in the Church, among them a very wise and im-
portant one forbidding the Cardinals to use their
houses as sanctuaries for criminals.

246 The Beautiful Queen

By the death of Urban Joanna lost her best and
most powerful friend, although the consequences to
her of this irreparable loss were not felt immediately.
The conclave to elect his successor was held at
Avignon, and the choice fell upon Pierre Roger de
Beaufort, the last of the French Popes, a nephew
of Clement VI. He took the title of Gregory XI.

Shortly after his accession Joanna succeeded in
putting an end to the strife which had disturbed
the Two Sicilies ever since the fatal day of the
massacre known as the Sicilian Vespers. A treaty
was entered into between her confessor the Bishop
of Gravina on the one hand, and the first chaplain
of Frederick of Aragon, then King of Sicily, on the
other side, by which the latter consented to acknow-
ledge Joanna as Queen of the Two Sicilies, and to
pay her a yearly tribute of three thousand ounces of
gold, on condition that she left him in peaceable
possession of the island. Frederick was also bound
to furnish Joanna whenever she required them with
ten galleys and a hundred men-at-arms. He was
also required to resign the title of King of Sicily,
and to take that of King of Trinacria instead. A
marriage was also arranged between him and Maria,
daughter of the Duke of Andria and of Joanna's
sister-in-law, Margaret of Taranto.

Thus ended the long struggle for independence of
the Island of Sicily, which now again acknowledged
an Angevine sovereign, Queen Joanna.

CHAPTER XVII
Joanna and Charles of Sweden

JOANNA had now reached the summit of her
greatness ; from henceforth her history grows
more and more sad and troubled, culminating in
the final tragedy at Mora. But before we treat of
a romantic episode which intervened before these
shadows deepened, it may be as well to pause here
to relate some incidents in the lives of Petrarch and
Boccaccio, who were such conspicuous members of
her court, and such enthusiastic admirers and
champions of the " Jewel of Italy " as to fall
naturally into the tale of her life. Boccaccio's re-
lations with Joanna's aunt, the Princess Maria of
Sicily, have already been mentioned. To her in-
fluence the world owes the immortal work, " The
Decameron." It was at her command that he wrote
the hundred short novels or tales it contains. For the
most part they are most licentious ; and the strongest

evidence of the kind of intimacy which existed

247

24 8 The Beautiful Queen

between the author and this beautiful princess is
afforded by the loose and immoral character of
a book of which Boccaccio was himself in later
years so ashamed that he wrote to a friend to
beg him not to permit his wife and daughter to
read it.

He began to write this masterpiece of Italian
prose at Naples, and finished it at Florence during
the visitation of the Great Plague in 1348. Its
publication was an epoch-making era in the history
of Italian prose, whose standard it fixed from that
day to this. The French critic Guinguene (1748-
18 16) says that "The Decameron," though less
serious than the " Divina Commedia " of Dante, and
less polished than the verses of Petrarch, has done
much more to fix the Italian language. The writers
of the sixteenth century speak of it with an en-
thusiasm which is almost religious. It is also a
mirror of the manners and customs of the author's
age. It opens with a most vivid description of
the Plague, and the plan adopted is a hundred
tales related by seven ladies and three gentlemen
who make a villeggiatura from Florence to escape
that dread scourge.

It is thought that the author owed, in a great
measure, the beauty of his style to his association
with Joanna for so many years, for her eloquence
and the ease with which she spoke both Italian and
the Provencal language were a liberal education,

Joanna and Charles of Sweden 249

and the Princess Maria was also famed for her
manners and conversation as well as for her wit.

In 1 36 1, when Boccaccio was living at Florence,
he was visited one day by a Carthusian friar, who
asked to see him in private, and then told him he
had a message for him from a member of his
Order lately dead in the odour of sanctity, named
Father Petroni, who had died in May, 1361, in
a rapture. The name of Boccaccio's visitor was
Father Joachim Ciani, and he informed him that
Father Petroni had begged him on his deathbed to
seek the author of "The Decameron," and warn him
that unless he reformed his life and his licentious
writings, of which he ought to be ashamed, he
would die very shortly, and suffer eternal punish-
ment for his sins.

Father Petroni also made several prophecies con-
cerning other persons, among whom was Petrarch.
Boccaccio asked Ciani how Father Petroni, who had
never seen him or Petrarch, could know anything
about them, and Ciani replied that not long before
his death he had had a vision, in which many things
had been revealed to him ; and to prove the truth
of what he said, he communicated to Boccaccio some-
thing concerning himself, a secret which he believed
no one knew but himself. This made such an
impression upon Boccaccio, who was terrified
by the prospect of an early death and a life of
eternal misery, that he was converted there and

250 The Beautiful Queen

then, resolved to reform his manner of life, to
renounce love and poetry, and even to part with
his library, which at that time contained little but
profane literature — which expression then meant
the classic Greek and Latin writers. Not content
with this change of life, which he faithfully carried
out, he gave himself up to the study of theology,
and was ordained priest after receiving the minor
orders.

He then wrote to Petrarch and told him of the
visit he had received, and of his resolutions, and
asked him to accept his library in discharge of some
debts he owed the poet. Petrarch was not so
persuaded of the truth of Father Petroni's warnings
as Boccaccio had been, and endeavoured to dissuade
his friend from abandoning literature and parting
with his library, and concluded by offering Boccaccio
a home in exchange for his books, which he declared
he would not except on any other terms.

Petrarch also urged that to deprive a man of
Boccaccio's age of his books entirely, when he had
cultivated letters so successfully hitherto, was to
deprive him of what would be a great solace in his
old age, and he asked him how St. Jerome would
have been able to combat heresy as he did if he had
had no books to help him.

Boccaccio declined Petrarch's offer to live with
him, but he kept his books, and added the study of
theology to his other knowledge, and soon became a

Joanna and Charles of Sweden 251

noted priest, and was entrusted with an important
mission by the Bishop of Florence.

Soon after he became a priest, Nicholas Acciajuoli
invited him to Naples, and for a time they lived
together in a palace at Amain ; but they did not get
on very well, as Acciajuoli now ranked among the
highest princes, and apparently gave himself airs
to one who had been his own familiar friend. He
also after a while treated Boccaccio shamefully, in
the hope of getting rid of him, and put him into a
mean lodging, badly furnished, and sent his menials,
his cooks, lackeys, and even his mule-drivers and
scullions to take their meals at the same table.
Boccaccio soon had enough of this kind of thing,
and left Amain and went to the north of Italy, to
stay with Petrarch in Padua for three months.

He then went to Certaldo, which was the birth-
place of his father, and after spending some time
there returned to Naples, where he met with such
a warm reception from Joanna that her courtiers all
vied with each other in doing him honour. But
though the Queen made him the most liberal offers
to remain attached to her court at Naples for the
rest of his life, he decided to return after a time
to Certaldo, where he was seized with the first
dangerous illness he had ever known, which ruined
his strong constitution, and he never wholly re-
covered from the effects of it.

In October 1373, he began a course of lectures

252 The Beautiful Queen

in the Church of St. Lawrence at Certaldo, on the
"Divina Commedia." The commentary he then wrote
on the first seven cantos makes two thick volumes,
and his enemies said he tried to display his own
knowledge rather than to explain Dante's immortal
poem.

In July, 1374, Petrarch died at Arqua, of a
fit of apoplexy, and Boccaccio thus lost his greatest
and best friend, whom he only survived for eighteen
months. His lectures and the labour they involved
proved too much for his enfeebled strength, and
on December 21st, 1375, he died at Certaldo. By
their deaths Joanna lost the two greatest ornaments
of her court, and two of her staunchest friends and
admirers, both of whom, as has appeared above, have
left their tribute of praise to the unfortunate and
beautiful Queen of the Two Sicilies.

About a year after the accession of Pope
Gregory XI. there occurred one of the most romantic
and dramatic incidents in Joanna's life — which was
certainly not wanting in either of these elements.
It was connected with the second visit of St. Bridget
of Sweden to the Neapolitan court, which she made
in 1 37 1, on her way to the Holy Land, whither
she, with her daughter Catherine and her two eldest
sons, Charles, Prince of Nericia, and Birger, two
young men of very different disposition and char-
acter.

Charles was a fine, handsome man, a brave soldier,

Joanna and Charles of Sweden 253

but of passionate, even violent nature, and yet he
had great charm of manner, and was very much
liked and admired. His father, who had been very
proud of his eldest son and his achievements in the
hunting-field as well as on the field of battle, had
spoiled him, and he had given his mother a great
deal of anxiety all through his life. She had great
influence over him, and could to some extent curb
his impetuous temper and love of the world, and
by her early training had fostered the religious side
of his character — which was by no means a negligible
quantity, for if he had strong passions, he had also
very strong faith in all the doctrines of the Catholic
religion,

Birger, on the other hand, had never given his
mother a moment's anxiety in his life : he was a
very pious, devout man, of a studious disposition,
very retiring, caring nothing for worldly pleasures ;
he had neither Charles's personal beauty, nor his
power of attracting affection and admiration, and
led a lonely life, occupying himself with works of
charity and study.

These two brothers arrived in Rome in the
autumn of 137 1, in order to accompany their
mother on her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on
which she was about to start. As the boat which
was to convey the pilgrims to Naples left the
harbour, St. Bridget turned to Father Peter of
Alvastra, her confessor, and said, as she looked at

254 The Beautiful Queen

the party, " We shall all return safely except the
one I love best" — a prophecy destined to be ful-
filled.

Joanna had just returned from Avignon, where
she had had a most cordial reception from the new
Pope Gregory XI., when St. Bridget and the other
Scandinavian pilgrims reached Naples. The Nea-
politan nobility again hastened to offer their princely
hospitality to the Swedish mystic and her companions ;
but this time St. Bridget preferred a quieter residence,
seeing that she was a pilgrim, so they went to the
Hospice of Santa Maria dell' Avvocata, which ad-
joined the monastery of the Brothers Hospitaliers
of St. John.

One of St. Bridget's first acts after her arrival in
Naples was to ask for an audience of the Queen, her
friend, and Joanna graciously accorded her one
immediately.

She was apparently at the time staying in the
Castel del Ovo, as it was there that the dramatic
scene we are about to describe took place. She
received the Swedish pilgrims at a solemn audience,
with all the honours due to the high rank of the
Princess of Nericia and her sons.

Joanna was now about forty-three, and her majestic
beauty was by no means impaired, but had rather
gained in dignity, by all the sorrows she had ex-
perienced. It was seen to the very best advantage,
as she was magnificently attired; her golden hair

Joanna and Charles of Sweden 255

was worn brushed back, showing her fine fore-
head, which was one of her best features, and was
crowned on this occasion with a diadem of pearls
on black velvet, which seems to have been especially
becoming. There was a tender look in her great
dark eyes, and the sweetest of smiles, for which
she was famous, played round her lips, as she
stood to receive her distinguished guests, towering
over all her ladies-in-waiting, many of whom
were remarkable also for their beauty, and sur-
rounded by her courtiers and knights, among
whom the chief gentleman-in-waiting was one Lan-
dolpho Crispano ; some of the royal princes were
also present.

St. Bridget advanced first to kiss the Queen's
hand, and then turned to present her two sons.
Birger knelt at the Queen's feet, according to the
etiquette of the court ; but Charles was so enchanted
by the vision of grace Joanna presented to his
gaze, that he forget everything except Joanna's
beauty, and pressing impulsively forward he seized
the Queen in his arms and kissed her on the lips.

The hot blood of the Neapolitan princes and
gentlemen-in-waiting was raised to boiling point at
this unseemly conduct to their mistress, and instinc-
tively their hands went to their swords, and but
for the restraining hand of Joanna on Crispano's
shoulder Charles's days would have come to an
abrupt conclusion. The Queen was not at all

256 The Beautiful Queen

offended at this Scandinavian expression of admira-
tion, and behaved most graciously to the impetuous
young Swede.

St. Bridget was terribly distressed at this incident,
for Charles had a wife in Sweden, with whom he
was not on the best of terms ; her piety did not suit
his worldly taste and love of society, and it was said
he would gladly be rid of her, and his subsequent
conduct showed there was truth in this report.
St. Bridget went back to the Hospice deeply
mortified and grieved at what she foresaw would
be a great trial, for the Queen was again a widow
and had seemed to be by no means displeased by
Charles's sudden passion for her. The saint threw
herself on her knees and then prostrated herself
before the altar in the chapel of the Brothers
Hospitallers on her return, and for the rest of her
stay in Naples spent the greater part of her time
there. Here the sick were brought to her to heal,
and here she poured out her heart in prayer for
her son.

Meanwhile Charles seemed to have abandoned
the idea of continuing his pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, and to have made up his mind to remain in
Naples, where he spent his days in following the
Queen, and dancing attendance upon her ; and Joanna
encouraged her Swedish lover, and it was said
seriously contemplated asking Charles to marry her.
St. Bridget, on hearing this gossip, went to the

Joanna and Charles of Sweden 257

Queen and told her that Charles already had a wife
and children in Sweden. Whether Joanna did
seriously think of asking the Pope to dispense
Charles from his marriage vows, which seems in-
credible, or whether she was unaware of his marriage
till St. Bridget apprised her of it, or whether she
merely intended to employ Charles to fight her battles
for her (for the incursions of Ambrose Visconti into
her dominions and the quarrels of the Neapolitan
princes made her councillors desire her to marry a
fourth time, so as to have some one to help her
to defend her kingdom) we do not know. However
this may be, she continued her friendship with the
handsome young Scandinavian warrior, and, to the
great distress of his mother, they met frequently,
and not all St. Bridget's entreaties could induce
Charles to leave Naples, whose Queen heaped
presents upon him.

Joanna now issued invitations to one of the
grand or solemn balls for which her court was
celebrated, but when the evening arrived Charles
did not appear. The Queen sent a messenger
with a command for him to come, as she was
expecting him ; but on reaching the Hospice at
which he was staying the messenger found he
was seriously ill with a sudden attack of fever,
and too weak to leave his bed or to speak above
a whisper. His illness, which was fatal, lasted a
fortnight, during which time St. Bridget scarcely

*7

258 The Beautiful Queen

left his bedside, watching and praying for his
repentance, which, if tardy, seems to have been
sincere.

When the news of his death was communicated
to the Queen, Joanna commanded that Charles's
funeral should be celebrated with the pomp befitting
one who was of high rank and on terms of intimate
friendship with her. The Archbishop of Naples
sung the Requiem in the cathedral, and a very
grand procession followed the remains of the hand-
some young Swede to the Franciscan monastery of
Santa Croce, where he was buried. His death was
one of the greatest sorrows of St. Bridget's life ;
she was seventy when it occurred, but she was
present at his funeral, and almost immediately after
left Naples, with the other pilgrims in her train,
for the Holy Land.

The Swedish saint paid one more visit to Naples,
about two years later, on her way home from
Jerusalem to Rome, where she was living, and
where she died soon after. On her arrival this
time at Naples she found the city sufFering from
the Plague, and Joanna, the Archbishop of Naples,
and the citizens were all assembled at the harbour
to greet her when her galley was sighted. They
implored her to deliver their beautiful city from
this terrible scourge ; for her reputation was so great
that the Queen, as well as the people, believed she
had the power to drive it away by her prayers, for

Joanna and Charles of Sweden 259

in those days this dread disease was considered a
punishment from Almighty God.

St. Bridget was not slow to take advantage of
this belief, and answered that " penitence alone
could turn away the divine anger from kings and
peoples, and that she would pray for guidance,
and tell them what Almighty God revealed to her
on the subject."

The result of the saint's prayers was that she
wrote a severe letter to her friend the Queen,
in the course of which she admonished her as
follows :

" Confess your faults with sincerity, and firmly
resolve to amend them. Think on the manner in
which you have fulfilled the duties of wife and
Queen. Restore any wealth unjustly acquired.
Be just before you are generous. Free your
subjects from as many taxes as you can. Surround
yourself with frank, wise, and disinterested counsellors.
Do not paint your beautiful face, lest by so doing
souls should be lost. Be humble. Love and solace
the poor. Meditate upon the Passion of Christ,
and fear the Lord, for you have led a life of ease
rather than that of a Queen. You will never have
any more children, therefore so rule the affairs of
your kingdom that peace may reign after your
death. There only remain a few years for you to
live ; employ them in the service of God and in
penitence : if not, at the last judgment you will

260 The Beautiful Queen

be treated as an ungrateful person, odious to the
Lord, to angels, and to men."

This remarkable but sensible letter was, it must
be remembered, written by an ascetic who was
herself leading a life of rigorous penance, treating
her body with the greatest severity, to whom,
therefore, Joanna's liking for society and gaiety
appeared as grievous sins ; moreover, St. Bridget
had been greatly scandalised by her son Charles's
sudden fit of passion for Joanna, and the way in
which the Queen had received it.

One of the Swedish pilgrims, Magnus d'Eka by
name, was entrusted to deliver this letter to the
Queen, who received it with great sweetness, and
did not in the least resent St. Bridget's warnings
and counsels. She granted her old friend several
private audiences during the two months that the
saint spent in Naples.

Not content with admonishing the Queen, St.
Bridget wrote several letters to the Archbishop of
Naples, in which she commented most severely on
the vice of the Neapolitans, and especially upon
the treatment of their slaves. The Archbishop is
said to have received her letters with respect, and
to have had portions of them read from the pulpit
in the cathedral, and also some of her revelations^
which, as the saint believed, were made to her
during her stay there.

The fact that the plague was raging in Naples

From a woodcut in " Revelationes Sancta Birgitta, 1500."
ST. BRIDGET ON HORSEBACK,
p. 260]

Joanna and Charles of Sweden 261

no doubt rendered the Archbishop and clergy more
disposed ta listen to the teaching of the Swedish
prophetess, who was already revered as a saint ; but
although conversions were made among the upper
classes, the populace paid but little heed to the
counsels and warnings given from the cathedral
pulpit.

Before St. Bridget left Naples, Joanna, hearing
that she was in want of money to continue her
journey to Rome, with her customary generosity
sent her a handsome present of money, which
the saint, after some hesitation, gratefully ac-
cepted, and then, at Joanna's invitation, went to
spend a few days with the Queen at Aversa, where
she was then in residence, taking her daughter
Catherine with her, intending to start from thence
for Rome. St. Catherine did not like Joanna, and
was anxious to leave as soon as possible, while
St. Bridget, who was much attached to the Queen,
whom she looked upon as her spiritual daughter,
and saw with how many temptations the beautiful
widowed Queen was beset, would fain have lingered
longer with her, in the hope of persuading her to
lead a stricter life. But St. Bridget was in very
feeble health, and no doubt St. Catherine was anxious
to get her safely back to Rome ; and after a short
stay at Aversa, the wind and weather being favour-
able, the pilgrims sailed for Rome, where St. Bridget
died on July 23rd of that same year.

262 The Beautiful Queen

By her death Joanna lost another real friend, to
whom she seems to have been sincerely attached,
since she loved her well enough to receive her
reproofs and warnings with her customary sweetness.

The very fact of St. Bridget's friendship for
Joanna, in spite of the great contrast in their
manner of life, speaks volumes in favour of the
much maligned Queen, for we cannot suppose that
if Joanna had been half as bad as some of her
detractors would have us believe, that so strict and
holy a woman as St. Bridget would have accepted
money from her, as well as hospitality, or have
visited her on three separate occasions.

CHAPTER XVIII
Joanna's Fourth Marriage

THE next event which disturbed Joanna's troubled
reign was the rebellion of the Duke of Andria,
which was coincident with the visit of St. Bridget
to Naples, and resulted ultimately in the loss of
Piedmont. This ambitious man had married Mar-
garet of Taranto, by whom he had two children, a
son and a daughter. The son was now, by the
will of his late uncle, Philip, who made him his
heir, Prince of Taranto, and he and his father
now combined together to seize the lands of the
barons surrounding their own dominions, with which
they were not content. The first place they took
was the town of Matera, which belonged to the
Sanseverini, the most powerful family in the kingdom,
who at once appealed to the Queen. Joanna sent a
well-trusted officer to remonstrate privately with the
Duke of Andria on his conduct, and to offer in her
name to arbitrate for him.

63

264 The Beautiful Queen

The Duke treated her ambassador with great
insolence, and refused to consent to any arbitration
or to give up Matera. Joanna, unwilling to resort
to extremes, assembled the Andria family, and
sent them in turn to remonstrate with him,
but all in vain. She then commanded him to
appear before her in person, but this Andria re-
fused to do.

Joanna, finding that her clemency was lost upon
her contumacious subject, now called a meeting of
her council, and, seated upon her throne, passed
sentence upon the Duke, commanding the Sanseverini
to occupy not only the lands of which the Duke
had deprived them, but also his possessions in Apulia,
which were held by him in fief to the crown, and
now belonged to it in forfeit of his disobedience and
rebellion.

The Duke had assembled all his forces in the
neighbourhood of Naples, intending to invade the
capital, to force the Queen to yield to his wishes.
However, the Sanseverini were strong enough to
defeat him and drive him back from Naples, and
to lay siege to the two adjacent towns of Tiani and
Sessa, which he had strongly fortified.

The Neapolitans suffered severely during the siege
of Tiani, from want of provisions, and Joanna went
about the city from piazza to piazza in her armour,
soothing the people and exhorting them to endure
privations bravely for a time, as it would be to their

Joanna's Fourth Marriage 265

future advantage. The siege lasted five months,
and then the Duke of Andria, seeing his cause was
hopeless, fled in the night, ordering the citizens to
capitulate if the enemy would set at liberty the
Duchess, whom he had left behind him.

Joanna, however, insisted upon an unconditional
surrender, and at the end of a fortnight the garrison
yielded, and the Duchess was immediately taken to
Naples. To defray the expenses of the war, Joanna
sold both Tiani and Sessa, and gave the proceeds
to two of the barons who had fought for her. She
also gave away the forfeited duchy of Andria to one
of them, but she very wisely kept Taranto for her-
self, as it was such an important part of her
dominions. The Duke of Andria now sought the
protection of the Pope at Avignon, who gave him
large sums of money, with which he was able to
raise a large army of thirteen thousand men, and
had advanced as far as Capua, when Joanna sum-
moned a council of war, and with the help of all
her barons provided for the defence of Naples itself ;
but Andria advanced to Aversa, and there waited to
visit his uncle, Raymond de Baux.

De Baux was a man of great weight in the kingdom,
and occupied the post of Grand Chamberlain ; he
received his rebellious nephew with great severity,
and sternly reproved him for his conduct, and told
him his only course now was to throw himself at the
feet of the Queen and implore her mercy, and get

266 The Beautiful Queen

the Pope to intercede for him with Joanna, who
was noted for her clemency.

The Duke was frightened at this attitude of his
uncle, and fled secretly to Provence, where he re-
covered his courage, and began again to plot against
Joanna, and introduced some mercenaries into her
kingdom, who caused such alarm and suffering to
her people that to get rid of them she agreed to pay
them a large sum of money if they would leave.

At the same time a large part of her dominions in
Piedmont fell into the hands of the Duke of Savoy,
and she was too much hampered by the Duke of
Andria's rebellion to be able to oppose him ; con-
sequently she lost for ever this principality, for
Gregory XI. did not exert himself on her behalf
as his predecessors had done. Close upon this
misfortune came the death of one of her most
cherished and able advisers, Raymond de Baux,
whom she deplored deeply.

Of course the natural person to take upon himself
the defence of her cause was Charles Durazzo, her
adopted son and heir ; but he was still fighting in the
service of her enemy, the King of Hungary, and
nothing would induce him to come to Naples and
defend his own inheritance. Seeing herself thus
lonely and unprotected from the many dangers
and enemies, open and secret, which surrounded
her, the only thing for her to do as it seemed to her
and her advisers was to marry a fourth time.

Joanna's Fourth Marriage 267

There was then living in Naples, a frequenter of
the Neapolitan Court, Otho, Prince of Brunswick,
who had won a great reputation by his bravery and
military exploits in Italy, where he was formerly Vicar-
General of the Emperor Charles IV. of Bohemia.
He was the younger son of the reigning Duke of
Brunswick, and, seeing no chance of ever inheriting
the duchy, he left his native land and went to Italy
to try to earn distinction for himself as a con-
dottiero or captain of one of the various companies
of mercenaries, whom the Italian States employed to
fight their battles for them in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. The condottieri had certain
rules, which they observed faithfully ; for instance,
they spared each other, they demanded enormous
sums for their services, but they always sent their
prisoners back without a ransom.

Otho was about the same age as Joanna ; he
was very popular in Italy and was handsome as
well as brave and good, and upon him Joanna's
choice fell. And it was fortunate for her that it did,
for he was the best of all her husbands, though
unable to save her from the final tragedy which
closed her life. He was generous and faithful to all
his engagements, he was neither greedy nor am-
bitious, and agreed to the condition which Joanna
imposed. This was that he should not bear the title
of King, which she feared would excite the envy of
Charles Durazzo, but every other honour that it was

268 The Beautiful Queen

in her power to grant him she bestowed upon him.
She gave him the principality of Taranto, which had
been forfeited, and it is thought that one of her great
reasons in marrying him was that he might under-
take the government of this part of her dominions,
which it would have hardly been safe to entrust to
any one who was not thus closely allied to her.

She was forty-six when she married Otho, but
she was so well preserved that she was still extra-
ordinarily youngr-looking. In character Otho is said
to have resembled her so much that the greatest
harmony and affection existed between them ; and at
last, after three ventures which can none of them
be described as ideal marriages, Joanna made ex-
perience of conjugal happiness, though it came late
in life, and was destined not to be of very long
duration. Still it is gratifying to know that she
secured at least a lustre of real happiness from that
strange mixture of joy and sorrow which we call life.

Strange to say, on the same day that Joanna and
Otho were married Ambrose Visconti, who had
been a State prisoner in the Castel del Ovo since his
rebellion against the Queen, made his escape from
prison. Whether there was some relaxation in the
watch kept over him on this august occasion, or
whether Joanna, so celebrated for her mercy to
those who had offended her, had given orders that
an opportunity for escape should be given him, we
do not know.

Joanna's Fourth Marriage 269

There was a celebrated astrologer living in Pro-
vence when Joanna was born, named Anselmo, who
when consulted as to whether the royal infant
Princess would marry answered, " Joanna maritaberis
cum Alio." The superstitious Neapolitans now
declared that the interpretation of this hitherto cryp-
tic utterance was that Alio represented the initial
letters of the names of her four husbands, Andrew,
Louis, James, and Otho, which seems rather far-
fetched.

If Joanna married a fourth time to please her-
self, she did not please her adopted son Charles
Durazzo, nor his wife Margaret, her adopted
daughter and niece, who were both very angry,
fearing that if there were any issue from the Queen's
marriage they would lose the crown, although
Joanna took every opportunity of asserting her
intention of leaving it to Charles Durazzo, her most
ungrateful heir. This fourth marriage took place in
1374, according to Costanzo ; other writers, who
appear to have copied each other, put the date
at 1376.

At the time of Joanna's fourth marriage, and
for a few years after, Naples was the only part of
Italy that was at peace, for the Florentines and the
Viscontis had invaded the Papal States, and the
principal cities belonging to the Papacy, Bologna,
Perugia, and Pavia, took this opportunity to de-
clare their independence.

270 The Beautiful Queen

The Pope at first tried to bring back the Floren-
tines and the revolted cities to their allegiance by
fatherly persuasion; but as they disregarded all his
overtures and promises of pardon if they submitted,
he summoned the Florentine magistrates to appear
before him at Avignon. But instead of obeying his
orders, they ill-treated his messengers, and Gregory,
now driven to exercise his authority if he wished
for peace, issued a Bull of Excommunication against
the Florentines, dated April 30th, 1376. This was
a most severe punishment, for it absolved all their
subjects from their allegiance, and by it they forfeited
all their rights and privileges as citizens, and their
estates in every part of the world became the pro-
perty of any one who could seize them. Foreign
princes were forbidden to receive them into their
kingdoms, except as slaves, and their children to the
third generation were proclaimed incapable of hold-
ing any office, either ecclesiastical or civil.

This terrible punishment destroyed the trade of
Florence completely, and the citizens soon tried to
make their peace with the Pope, for besides all these
temporal deprivations, they were also deprived of
the Sacraments, except in the case of the dying. In
their distress the Florentines now appealed to the
dyer's daughter afterwards known as St. Catherine
of Siena, whose reputation for sanctity was even
greater than that which her contemporary St. Bridget
of Sweden enjoyed, and the Commune of Florence

Joanna's Fourth Marriage 271

entreated her to go to Siena and intercede with
Gregory for them.

St. Catherine was received with great honour at
Avignon, and the Pope had such confidence in her
judgment that he entrusted her with full power to
make peace with the Florentines, knowing well that
she would not do so at the expense of the Church.
On her return to Siena the people rose against her
and even threatened to kill her, but she escaped
from them, and the Florentines then begged for the
mediation of the neutral States of Italy.

Joanna and Otho exerted all their influence at
Avignon and Florence, and were aided by the
Genoese, and at length succeeded in procuring a
truce. During this temporary peace the Florentines
prevailed upon St. Catherine of Siena to go a
second time to Avignon, and urge the Pope to
return to Rome, promising to submit to the Holy
See if he would remove it back to the Eternal City,
but hinting plainly that if he -did not they would
again begin hostilities. Gregory, yielding at last
against his own judgment to the remonstrances of
St. Catherine, who like St. Bridget told him of the
visions and revelations she had had concerning him,
decided to go back to Rome, fearing that if he dis-
regarded the letters St. Bridget had written to him,
and the solemn warnings of St. Catherine and Peter
of Aragon — who also claimed to have had a revelation
from Heaven, commanding the Pope to return — he

272 The Beautiful Queen

might be disobeying the will of Almighty God ; so
he set sail for Rome, whither he did not arrive until
January 17th, 1377.

In the meanwhile St. Catherine of Sweden, the
daughter of St. Bridget, had gone back to Rome
from Wadstena (where she was now Abbess in the
first convent of the Brigittines) to labour for the
canonisation of St. Bridget. In 1376 Catherine
arrived at Naples, bent on the same errand, namely,
to collect a list of the miracles said to have been
performed by St. Bridget during her visits to Naples,
and to get the attestations of the Archbishop and
bishops, and other witnesses of the truth of these
reputed miracles.

There Catherine, who had no liking for the
Queen, did not see Joanna at all, though she
stayed two months at least in the city. Pro-
bably St. ' Catherine disapproved very strongly of
Joanna's many marriages, for she herself was not
only a "widow indeed," but she had never been a
wife except in name, having persuaded her husband
to let her live as his sister.

Perhaps there may have been some jealousy
between these two women, both remarkable for their
beauty. At any rate, there was no friendship
between them such as had existed between Joanna
and Catherine's mother.

One of St. Catherine's Neapolitan friends was the
wife of Jamotti, the Seneschal of Salerno ; and during

GREGORY THE ELEVENTH.

p. 272]

Joanna's Fourth Marriage 273

the Abbess's stay in Naples, Alfarina, as she was
called, confided to her that her husband's love for
her had turned to hatred, because she had borne him
no less than seven stillborn infants, and he believed,
with the superstition then so common among all
ranks, that she was accursed. Alfarina was again
about to become a mother, and she dreaded that
again her hopes might be disappointed, and another
little coffin be required to take the place of the
cradle she had prepared. Catherine comforted her
and encouraged her to have hope, and gave her
some relics of her mother so soon to be canonised ;
and not long after the joyful sound of the wail of a
new-born infant was heard in the palace, which
afterwards received the name of Bridget, and is
said to have been the first child in Italy so called.

Gregory XI. received as enthusiastic a welcome
on his entry into his capital as his predecessor
St. Urban V. had done. The reins of his white
courser were held by Robert Orsini, one of the greatest
Roman barons, and he was acclaimed with loud,
joyful shouts of "Evviva il Papa!" These demon-
strations were as hollow as a drum : he was beset
from within by the insolence of the Roman nobility,
and from without by war and rebellion ; and at the
end of a year he decided to return to Avignon, but
before he could carry out this intention he died on
March 27th, 1378.

On his deathbed he is said by some writers,

18

274 "The Beautiful Queeri

though others question it, to have warned his hearers
to place no faith in visions and revelations, and to
have regretted that he had been led by them to
return to Rome. At the same time it must be
remembered that he was on the point of adding
St. Bridget's name to the Calendar of the Saints
when his death occurred, and it was left to his
successor to continue her cause ; but the canonisation
did not take place until 1391, when Boniface IX.
at last rewarded all Catherine's efforts on her mother's
behalf.

Although Gregory XI. had never been a great
friend to Joanna, it was an unhappy day for her
when he died, for his successor became her greatest
enemy. Just before his death, foreseeing that there
would be great difficulties in the election of the new
Pope, Gregory published a Bull providing that instead
of the usual number of two-thirds of the votes being
necessary to secure the election of the Supreme
Pontiff, when the Conclave should meet for that
purpose, a majority of votes should suffice.

The Sacred College consisted at that time of only
twenty-three Cardinals, eighteen of whom were
French, four Italian, and one a Spaniard. There
was a strong feeling among the Italians, and especially
among the Romans, to force the Conclave to elect an
Italian Pope instead of a French one this time,
as the late Pope had foreseen. The city of Rome
was now governed by a supreme magistrate called

Joanna's Fourth Marriage 275

the Senator, assisted by twelve Bannerets ; and during
the time which elapsed between the death of Gregory
and the meeting of the Conclave, these Bannerets
met, and waited in a body on the Cardinals and
warned them that the people of Rome were deter-
mined to have an Italian Pope, and in the event
of any one of another nationality being chosen they
would not undertake to protect the Cardinals from
the violence of the populace.

The mode of election of a new Pope and all
the arrangements for the Cardinals who form the
Conclave differ very little in the twentieth century
from those which prevailed in the fourteenth. Rome
changes very slightly in these matters — she is "semper
eadem " •; but the circumstances attending the Con-
clave which followed the death of Gregory XI. were
so unusual, and the result was of such vital con-
sequence to Joanna especially, as well as to the
whole of Christendom, that we must devote a little
space to describing it, even though it be an oft-told
tale.

CHAPTER XIX
The Beginning of the Great Schism

THE prophetic fears of Pope Gregory XI. were
destined to be only too well fulfilled, and
when the Conclave met to elect his successors this
became apparent. Before the Cardinals assembled,
deputations of Roman citizens approached many
of them, to beg them to elect a Roman or at least
an Italian to the Chair of Peter. They began
the interview with entreaties, and ended with
threats.

Later in the proceedings the Romans obtained
the office of guarding the Cardinals, and proceeded
to do this very thoroughly ; for they took possession
of the sails and rudders of all the boats on the
Tiber, to prevent any of them from escaping that
way until they had elected an Italian Pope. When
the Conclave was sitting the noise of the mob, who
blew on trumpets and played upon tambourines, and

shouted and yelled, and hissed and cheered, deafened

276

The Beginning of the Great Schism 277

them ; but had they felt their lives were in danger,
they could easily have hired some mercenaries to
defend them, and the fact that they did not do so
points to the validity of the election which followed,
and shows that they were not intimidated into making
choice of an Italian Pope, as was afterwards maintained
by the adherents of the antipope.

On April 6th a terrific thunderstorm broke over
the city, and a thunderbolt fell upon the cell of the
Spanish Cardinal, Pierre de Luna, of Aragon, and
a rumour spread that he had been elected ; and so
much damage was done by the storm to the Vatican
that it was difficult to instal the Cardinals, and
the Conclave had to be postponed for twenty-four
hours.

On the 7th, when the Conclave met again at
four in the afternoon, the piazza of St. Peter's was
covered with a crowd of ao,ooo people, who shouted
at the Cardinals as they entered, " We will have
an Italian Pope ! Give us an Italian Pope or we
shall know what to do ! "

Of the four Italian Cardinals in the Conclave,
Cardinal Orsini was too young to be elected — he
was then only twenty-four — and Piero, Cardinal of
St. Peter's, was too old, and suffered from gout so
badly that he had to be carried across the square
into the palace. On the night of the 7th the mob
broke into the Vatican and found access to the Papal
cellars, and got tipsy on Canary and Chianti, and

278 The Beautiful Queen

threatened the lives of the Cardinals, demanding
a Roman Pope ; but the Cardinals would not be
intimidated, and Orsini told them that if they were
to elect any one through fear of them, the election
would be ipso facto null and void.

Now there was an outsider, Nicholas Prignano,
a Neapolitan, the Archbishop of Bari, who had
been consulted by the Cardinals before they entered
into the Conclave, and who had also taken part in the
deliberations of the Bannerets on the same subject,
and before the Conclave a good many of the Cardinals
were prepared to vote for Prignano, and eventually
did so on April 8 th, and he, being elected by fifteen
votes, took the title of Urban VI.

The new Pope belonged to a noble Neapolitan
family, and was not only a very eloquent, capable,
wise man, but at the time of his election he was
also very good and pious, humble and mortified, and
was held in high esteem by his countrymen, and
especially by his Queen, Joanna, who had a very
great regard for him.

While the Conclave was sitting Thomas d'Acerno,
Joanna's attorney, who was in Rome, wrote to one
of her chamberlains to say that the Archbishop of
Bari stood a very good chance of being elected ;
and when the news of his exaltation to the highest
earthly dignity actually came to Naples, the Queen
and her people were all delighted at the honour
conferred upon their countryman.

The Beginning of the Great Schism 279

Joanna with her usual royal generosity immedi-
ately sent the new Pope a present of 40,000 crowns,
a ship-load of provisions, and all kinds of things
which she thought would be useful to him, and
at the same time she wrote to tell him that all
her kingdom had to offer was at his disposal. Later,
when the Cardinals rebelled against him, Joanna sent
him 200 cavalry and a large body of foot-soldiers to
guard him.

We shall never know all Urban's reasons for
acting as he now did ; for while he accepted Joanna's
presents and the service of her troops, he was
plotting her downfall with her brother-in-law, 1
the Duke of Andria, who was in rebellion against
her.

Joanna had now four great enemies to contend
with : her life-long enemy, Louis of Hungary, was
still upon the warpath ; the Duke of Andria was
in rebellion against her ; her nephew and heir,
Charles of Durazzo, was in the service of the
King of Hungary, and plotting to dethrone her ;
and, as she was soon to discover, the new Pope
was the most powerful of all her foes.

The shadows were darkening round her. The
accession of Urban VI. was the first step in the
downfall of the beautiful Sicilian Queen. Had
she opposed Prignano's election from the first, it

1 Her sister-in-law, Margaret of Taranto, was married to the Duke
of Andria.

280 The Beautiful Queen

would have been easy to understand Urban's conduct
towards her ; but, as we have just seen, she did
not do so — on the contrary she treated him with
generous loyalty until the crash came.

Urban's enemies attributed his behaviour to
Joanna to his nepotism, a grave fault in a Pope,
of which he cannot be excused ; for it is said he
desired the greater part of Joanna's kingdom for
his nephew, Francisco or Butillo Prignano, a most
unworthy man of licentious life, and Urban deter-
mined to invest Charles Durazzo with Joanna's
crown on condition that he would give up half
the kingdom to his nephew, Francisco Prignano.

While the Pope and the Duke of Andria were
sending secret messengers to Durazzo, to try to
negotiate this business, Cardinal Orsini went to
the Neapolitan Court, and in an interview with the
Queen tried to induce her to refuse to acknowledge
Urban, and to get the Ultramontane Cardinals to
elect him as Pope in his stead.

Joanna, with her usual wisdom, refused to do
anything of the kind ; and so far from favouring
Cardinal Orsini's proposal, she sent a splendid
embassy — with her husband, Prince Otho of Bruns-
wick, at its head, accompanied by her Chancellor,
Nicholas Spinelli — to Rome to endeavour to smooth
matters there, and to make peace between the Pope
and the now offended Cardinals, and if possible
to ward off the threatened schism.

The Beginning of the Great Schism 281

This act of Joanna's should not be forgotten,
as it too often is by her detractors, who, because
she afterwards was unhappily led to espouse the
cause of the antipope, Clement VII., and to play
a prominent part in the Great Schism, heap all
manner of abuse upon her, remembering all her
bad acts and forgetting all her good ones, forgetting
also the very great provocation she received to
revolt from Urban, although nothing could excuse
her from doing so. His election, though disputed,
was legal, and it was the duty of all good Catholics,
of whom Joanna was one, to be loyal to him in
spite of his faults, which were great.

To begin with, Urban had a violent temper, and
after his exaltation he became so haughty, and
treated the Cardinals who had elected him with such
scorn and contempt, and instituted such vigorous
if necessary reforms, that they revolted against him,
and thirteen out of the fifteen who had voted for
him were so disgusted at the treatment they received
at his hands that they withdrew from Rome and
went to Anagni first, and afterwards, at the request
of Onerato Cajetano, Lord of Fondi, to Fondi, where
they ultimately elected the antipope Robert, Bishop
of Geneva, who took the title of Clement VII.

Onerato Cajetano was a most powerful Neapolitan
baron, and had lent the late Pope 20,000 florins,
and when Urban came to the throne he wrote and
asked him to discharge his predecessor's debt. Urban

282 The Beautiful Queen

was furious, and deprived Cajetano of his title and
fief, and gave them to Sanseverini, Prince Otho's
Chancellor. Cajetano's.- daughter was engaged to be
married to Otho's brother, Balthazar of Brunswick.

Unfortunately Joanna's mission to Rome was
twofold. First and foremost it was to try to make
peace between the Pope and Cardinals ; but secondly
it was to ask Urban's consent to the marriage of
Maria, daughter and heiress of Frederick the Simple
of Sicily, to Prince Otho's nephew, the Marquis of
Montferrat.

Urban, however, desired to unite the rich Sicilian
heiress with his own nephew, Francis Prignano, and
he was so angry at the proposal made to him on
Montferrat' s behalf that he could not command his
temper sufficiently to answer the ambassadors civilly.
Nicholas Spinelli, Joanna's Chancellor, and Urban
had been intimate friends before Joanna's favour had
raised them both to the high position they after-
wards occupied in her kingdom ; but now Urban
would not listen to his old friend, who was almost
as anxious to serve him as he was to please Joanna ;
and when the Chancellor tried to point out that
the marriage he had come to propose would be
most advantageous to the Papacy, since it would
unite both the Sicilies in its interests, the Pope flew
into a violent passion, and said he " would soon
send the Queen of Naples to spin in the monastery
of St. Clare."

The Beginning of the Great Schism 283

From this time matters between the Neapolitan
embassy and the Pope went from bad to worse.
Prince Otho and the Chancellor, Nicholas Spinelli,
were naturally highly indignant at this insult to
Joanna, and Urban continued to add fuel to the
flame he had kindled by a succession of slights
which he put upon Joanna's husband and minister.

One day, at a public banquet in Rome, Spinelli
seated himself next to Otho (which indeed was his
proper place as Chancellor of the kingdom he
represented), whereupon the Pope ordered him to
get up instantly, and not presume to occupy a place
which did not belong to him, but to go lower down.
The Neapolitan pride of Spinelli could little brook
this insult, and it is said that he never forgave it.

Urban, not content with insulting Joanna's
Chancellor and his own old friend, treated the
Neapolitan Queen's husband also with marked
contempt, and also with great ingratitude, for Otho
had done all in his power to support the Pope
and uphold his authority.

On one occasion when the Prince of Brunswick,
according to custom, held a basin of water and a
towel for the Holy Father to wash his hands before
dinner, Urban turned away and, pretending not to
see the Prince kneeling at his side, entered into
conversation with some one else, till one of his
friends, horrified at this behaviour to one of such
high rank as Prince Otho, the Consort of the Queen

284 The Beautiful Queen

of Naples, exclaimed : " Your Holiness must needs
wash ; Holy Father, it is high time you did so."

Otho's secretary says that Otho then repeated
the remark made of an earlier Pope Urban, that
he feared the Holy Father should rather be called
a disturber than urbane, making a Latin pun lost
in translation. 1

It does not require much imagination to picture
Joanna's just anger when Otho and her Chancellor
returned to Naples and related this incident and
various other insults which they had received at
the hands of the Pope, whom she had originally
been so anxious to help, and had treated with such
generosity. Petty annoyances and slights of this
kind are apt to stir up and engender more strife
and bitterness than more aggressive actions. The
scenes between Urban and Joanna's embassy took
place at Tivoli, whither Urban had retired when
the other Cardinals went to Anagni, from whence
they issued encyclical letters to, all the European
courts, declaring the election of Urban null and
void.

As a cbunterblast to this, Urban proceeded to
create twenty-nine new Cardinals, and at the same
time he offered to have his election examined by a
General Council of the Church, which he proposed
to call ; but the Cardinals refused to consent to this,

1 " Pro certo pater noster non Urbanus sed potius, timeo Turbanus
dicetur."

The Beginning of the Great Schism 285

and the election in September of the Bishop of
Geneva by the Cardinals at Fondi, which was in the
kingdom of Naples, was the beginning of the Great
Schism, which disturbed the Church and the whole
of Europe for forty years, from 1378 to 141 8.

Robert of Geneva, the antipope, was a most blood-
thirsty man ; he had personally led into Italy the
Breton Company, the most inhuman of all the
marauding bands of adventurers which molested Italy,
and he had instigated them to commit atrocities.
They were commanded now by Francesco de Vico,
Prefect of Viterbo.

Robert of Geneva, after his election by the French
Cardinals, was crowned in the Castle of Fondi, in
the presence of Prince Otho and other Neapolitan
nobles. Of the four Italian Cardinals who had
voted for Urban, only two remained faithful, the
old Cardinal Piero of St. Peter's died, and Cardinal
Orsini now joined Joanna and recognised Clement
VII. as Pope. When Urban returned to Rome from
Tivoli he found himself deserted by the Sacred
College ; and it was by the advice of St. Catherine
of Siena that he created the new Cardinals. She
admonished him never to resign his high office, and
by her admirable counsels encouraged him to perse-
vere in his difficult career.

Very soon all Christendom was divided between
the rival Popes, some countries remaining true to
Urban, others joining the Clementines. The Emperor

286 The Beautiful Queen

of Germany, the Kings of England, Sweden,
Denmark, Hungary, Bohemia, and most of the
Italian States and Flanders were loyal to Urban ;
whereas France and Scotland (which at that time
invariably sided with France against England), Spain,
Naples, Austria, Cyprus, Savoy, and some of the
Italian and German States joined Clement's party.

The Papal war now began in earnest. Rival armies,
each bearing the banner and Keys of St. Peter, met
on the plains of the Romagna, and at first the
advantage was on the side of the Clementines.
Meanwhile Urban and Clement fulminated ana-
themas against each other, and each excommuni-
cated the adherents of the rival Pope, so that all
Europe was disturbed and unsettled by the quarrels
of the Urbanists and the Clementines.

St. Catherine of Siena now proposed to Urban
that she should go to Naples with St. Catherine of
Sweden, St. Bridget's daughter (who was in Rome,
working for her mother's canonisation, which was
delayed by the schism), and endeavour to win Joanna
over to his cause. But there were two obstacles to
this plan. In the first place, Catherine of Sweden, who
we know did not like Joanna, positively refused to
go and see her; and in the second place the confessor
of St. Catherine of Siena, Raymond of Capua, dissuaded
her from going, and Urban reluctantly yielded to
his representations, for which the saint was very
indignant.

From a woodcut in " Revelatwnes Sanclat Birgilta;, 1500."
ST. BRIDGET DELIVERING HER RULE TO THE MONKS AND NUNS.
p. 286]

The Beginning of the Great Schism 287

St. Catherine of Siena, who had a high respect for
the Neapolitan Queen, now wrote letters to Joanna
and to some of the ladies in her court, and sent them
to Naples by her devoted friend, Neri di Landuccio,
entreating the Queen to be loyal to the lawful Pope.
But by this time Joanna was unfortunately too
closely involved in the fortunes of the antipope to
draw back ; moreover, she knew Urban was deter-
mined to depose her in favour of Charles Durazzo,
to whom he had again offered the crown of Naples,
through Joanna's enemy, the Duke of Andria, whom
he sent to Charles to persuade him to accept it.

Charles, who was not so black as he has been painted,
seems to have had scruples at first at treating his
foster-mother in so ungrateful a way, but Andria
overcame them by rousing his jealousy against
Prince Otho and Robert, Count of Artois, who had
married the Queen's eldest niece, Joanna, Duchess
of Durazzo, daughter of Maria of Sicily, and the
Duke suggested that Joanna intended to leave her
crown to either one or the other of them. Joanna,
however, had made different plans, and had decided
to adopt Louis of Anjou as her heir.

Charles of Durazzo hesitated to obey the Pope's
injunctions for another reason : his wife Margaret,
the Queen's adopted daughter, and his two children
lived in the palace with Joanna, and until they were
removed he could not with due regard for their
safety take active measures to obtain the throne.

288 The Beautiful Queen

Meanwhile Urban VI. created several Neapolitan
Cardinals, and bestowed benefices upon some member
of all the most important families of the kingdom,
by which stroke of diplomacy he won over to his
cause many of the most influential subjects of Joanna,
who was now unfortunately irrevocably pledged to
the antipope.

The battle of Marino between the two rival Papal
armies proved victorious for Urban, thanks to the
services of Sir John Hawkwood and his mercenaries,
whom he had hired to fight for him ; and Clement,
feeling no longer safe at Fondi, determined to retire
to Naples, and begged Joanna to send an escort to
convey him thither.

Joanna, knowing that many of her subjects were
loyal to Urban, was afraid that the antipope might
meet with a hostile reception if he went to Castel
Nuovo, where her court usually resided when she
was in Naples ; so she had the island Castel del Ovo
fitted up magnificently for his reception, and went
to the expense of having a temporary bridge thrown
across from the rock on which the grim old castle
stood to the mainland.

Clement and the Cardinals of his creation passed
over this bridge in procession, making a grand
display, and when they reached the great gateway
of the castle met with a magnificent reception.
There were assembled the brilliant Neapolitan court
of barons and knights and other nobles, with their

The Beginning of the Great Schism 289

wives and daughters in attendance on the royal
princes and princesses, all attired in full court
dress.

Under the great gateway, the centre of this
brilliant throng of "fair women and brave men,"
and the fairest among them all, stood Joanna, in
the royal purple velvet robes always worn by the
Neapolitan sovereign, with magnificent jewels upon
her head and neck and arms ; a vision of majestic
beauty, although no longer young. By her side
stood Prince Otho, a handsome and imposing figure,
and close by the three daughters of Joanna's dead
sister Maria : Joanna, Duchess of Durazzo, wife of
Robert of Artois ; Agnes, widow of the Prince of
Verona ; and Margaret, wife of Charles Durazzo,
the Queen's adopted daughter.

As Clement dismounted Joanna genuflected twice,
and then knelt to kiss his foot and receive his bless-
ing, and the royal princes and princesses did the
same, and when this ceremony was over the anti-
pope went into the castle to partake of a magnificent
feast prepared for him and his Cardinals.

The festivities and entertainments which Joanna's
superfluous generosity had prepared to welcome the
disturber of the peace of Christendom lasted several
days, and caused supreme discontent and disaffection
in Naples, because, from the remoteness of the scene,
the citizens were unable to see anything of them —
and pageants are very dear to the Neapolitan heart.

l 9

290 The Beautiful Queen

Joanna's usual wisdom had deserted her, in the
first place, when, goaded by Urban's discourtesy and
plots against her, she had chosen to support Clement,
and, in the second place, when through fear lest the
antipope should meet with any hostile demonstration
she had installed him in the Castel del Ovo, and by
so doing had disappointed her people of the festivities
and pageants in which they revelled. From a reli-
gious and from a political point of view, the usually
wise Joanna committed a fatal mistake, one of the
remoter consequences of which has been the obloquy
which has ever since attached to her name, preju-
dicing as it has done so many loyal Catholic writers
against her, so that they were unable to judge her
fairly.

Nothing can excuse her conduct altogether in
this matter, but at least nearly half Europe sinned
with her, and no one had greater reason or stronger
temptation to join Clement's party than she had.
The Neapolitan people, who were too ignorant to
enter into the merits and demerits of the contro-
versy, and dared not rebel against Urban, interpreted
Joanna's action in hiding the antipope in the Castel
del Ovo as a sign of temerity on her part, and were
in a state of ferment, when they were roused to
open rebellion by an incident which occurred soon
after Clement arrived.

A working-man in the Piazza of Sadlers one
day spoke disrespectfully of the Queen to a group

The Beginning of the Great Schism 291

of listeners in the hearing of a gentleman named
Ravignano, who was riding past, and who stopped to
reprove him. The man repeated his remarks, and
his insolence provoked the rider to ride his horse
at him with the intention of knocking him down ;
but in the scuffle which ensued the sadler lost his
eye. His nephew raised the cry of Urban VI.,
and the infuriated crowd flew to arms and pro-
ceeded to pillage the houses of foreigners in the
lower part of the city.

The Abbot Barruto, whom Urban had recently
created Archbishop of Naples, headed this mob,
and then took possession of the cathedral, driving
the family of the Clementine Archbishop out of
the archiepiscopal palace. This tumult was soon
quelled, and reprisals followed, in the course of
which the houses occupied by the Archbishop
Barruto and his suite were pulled down.

These disturbances caused Clement to be seized
with a fit of panic, in which he left Castel del
Ovo and fled to Gaeta, and refused all Joanna's
invitations and entreaties to return to Naples.
From Gaeta he went to Avignon, which became
the place of residence of the antipopes and their
court.

CHAPTER XX
Joanna is Excommunicated

LOUIS of Anjou, whom Joanna had decided
to adopt as her heir in the place of Charles
of Durazzo, was the eldest brother of Charles V.,
King of France, and, after the King, the most
powerful person in that kingdom ; so it seemed
to be an advantageous move on the Queen's part,
particularly as the University of Paris had recently
declared in favour of the antipope, Clement VII.
Joanna hoped, by making the King's brother her
heir, to enlist the services of France to defend her
crown against the Pope and Charles of Durazzo.
Charles had been for some time engaged in fighting
for the King of Hungary, Joanna's old enemy, in
the wars between the Venetians and the Genoese
for maritime supremacy ; and Urban now thought
the time had come for him to send for his wife
and children, who were living with Joanna, so he
commanded him to do so prior to advancing with
his Hungarian troops into Naples.

292

Joanna is Excommunicated 293

Charles obeyed the Pope, and wrote to the Queen
asking that his wife and children should be sent
to him ; and Joanna, who must have felt this
stroke acutely, with her usual generosity granted
his request, although it was clearly against her own
interest to do so, and sent her adopted daughter
Margaret, with her little son Ladislaus, afterwards
King of Naples, and his sister with a safe escort
to Friuli, where Charles was then quartered. The
Queen was destined never again to see Margaret of
Durazzo, whom she had loved and cherished as
her own daughter — a contingency she probably
foresaw when with a heavy heart she parted from
her.

Meanwhile Urban's unpopularity was so great
in Rome that the mob had attacked the Vatican
with sticks and stones ; but, nothing daunted, the
Pope, who with all his faults knew no fear, vested
himself in his full pontificals and boldly showed
himself to the people, trusting that the sight ot
him, whom they regarded as the Vicar of Christ,
would strike terror into their hearts and terrify
them into submission — as it did, and the tumult
subsided.

This was in January, 1380, and in the following
April St. Catherine of Siena died, and by her
death the Pope lost his earthly guardian angel,
who alone of all his subjects knew how to control
his violent temper, and who had always urged him

294 The Beautiful Queen

to be patient and merciful with Joanna and his
other enemies, while at the same time she
had encouraged him to defend his throne against
them.

Joanna's conduct in taking so prominent a part
in the election and recognition of Robert of Geneva
as the antipope had naturally incensed Urban more
and more with her, and a week after St. Catherine's
death he issued a Bull of Excommunication against
her.

In it he denounced " Joanna, formerly Queen of
the Two Sicilies for her iniquities, wickedness, and
enormous excesses, committed against Us and the
Roman Church, and We declare her to be a schis-
matical, heretical, and blasphemous conspirator against
Us and guilty of the crime of ' lese-majeste,' and We
deprive her of and depose her from all her dignities,
honours, kingdoms, and lands, which We confiscate
all and each, and We absolve from their fidelity and
obedience to her all who have sworn allegiance to
her, and none shall be held bound to obey her or
to pay any debts due to her. And We inhibit
under pain of excommunication all individual
princes, dukes, barons, and nobles, and under
pain of an interdict all communities and Univer-
sities, from obedience to her. Given at St. Peter's,
Rome, April 29th, in the third year of Our
pontificate."

At the same time Urban fulminated a sentence

Joanna is Excommunicated 295

of deposition against Bernard of Rhodes, the
Clementine usurper of the Archbishopric of Naples,
and confirmed the Abbot Barruto in the office in
his place, and he excommunicated Onerato Cajetano
and Rinaldo Orsini, Count of Nola, and his brother
Giovanni.

The Pope now proceeded to preach a crusade
against Joanna ; but as this produced but little money
and he was at this time nearly bankrupt, he seized
the gold and silver images in the churches of Rome,
and the jewels which adorned the shrines, and a
great deal of the altar plate as well, and sold them
or had them melted down.

About this time Charles Durazzo entered Italy
at the head of 8,000 Hungarian soldiers, besides
a large body of German and Italian infantry, who
pillaged and destroyed the defenceless towns and
villages they passed through, and would have be-
sieged Florence if Sir John Hawkwood and his
companies had not intervened and made a com-
promise by which the English knight and his
followers entered Durazzo's service, and the Flor-
entines agreed to lend Durazzo 40,000 florins —
which he had never the smallest intention of re-
funding — and promised not to assist Joanna.

In the month of May Charles arrived in Rome,
and was afFectionately received by the Pope, but
forced to agree to the conditions upon which Urban
offered him the crown of Naples, which as we know

296 The Beautiful Queen

were that the greater part of the kingdom should
belong to his nephew, Butillo Prignano. Urban
then proceeded formally to invest Durazzo with the
Two Sicilies on the above conditions, to which
Charles agreed, inwardly resolving that he would
never fulfil them. In return Urban bestowed upon
him all the treasure he had realised by the spoliation
of the Roman churches, and, fortified with these
sinews of war, Charles now advanced on Naples.

While Charles is thus spreading terror throughout
Italy, by the excesses of his barbarian Hungarians
and lawless freebooters, let us turn and see what
steps the unhappy, excommunicated Queen and
her husband were taking to defend her throne and
life.

In a document dated July 29th, 1380, signed
at Castel del Ovo, Joanna declared that she deprived
Charles Durazzo of all pretensions to the inheritance
of her kingdom, and that in his place she had adopted
Louis, Duke of Anjou and Turenne, Count of
Mans, and Lord of Montpellier, brother to Charles
V., King of France, as heir to all her dominions in
Naples, Provence, and Piedmont for himself and
all his descendants.

This action displeased many of her Neapolitan
subjects, who had known Charles from his cradle,
and were proud of his military exploits, and in spite
of his faults were attached to him, whereas Louis of
Anjou was a stranger to them. From this time

Joanna is Excommunicated 297

Joanna's kingdom was torn with dissensions, political
as well as religious — between not only the two
parties of the Urbanists and Clementines, but the
adherents of Charles of Durazzo and their opponents,
the followers of Joanna and Louis of Anjou, also.

Among those who now deserted Joanna were
the two Orsini, the Counts of Nola. In the midst
of all this trouble, confusion was rendered " worse
confounded" by a tumult in the piazzas of the city,
between the nobles. Those of Capuana and Nido
pretended that they had the right conceded to them
by the late King Robert to precede all the other
barons ; whereas the barons of Portanova, Porto,
and S. Arcangelo maintained, on the contrary, that
they had the precedence of the most ancient nobles.
This controversy led to battles in the streets and
to much bloodshed, and on August 7th the whole
city was in a state of alarm ; but Prince Otho, at the
risk of his own life, accompanied by some other
barons, joined in the fray, and succeeded in quelling
the disturbance.

Joanna pardoned the principal offenders, who had
by their foolish ambition to precede each other
placed the throne in danger ; but the Queen was
ever clement and merciful to a fault.

Unfortunately for Joanna, the death of the French
King, Charles V., took place on September 16th
in the same year, and this delayed the advent of
Louis of Anjou, who was declared Regent of France,

298 The Beautiful Queen

and was obliged to remain in Paris for some time ;
so he was unable to come at once to her aid, although
it was now in his own interest to do so.

The antipope Clement confirmed Joanna's adop-
tion of Louis, and had the insolence to bestow upon
him the Papal States, which were in the possession
of the true Pope, Urban VI.

As time drew on Charles approached nearer to
Naples, and his forces were daily increased by
deserters from Joanna's party, many of whom were
terrified by the sentence of excommunication pro-
nounced against her by Urban, and, fearing for their
spiritual welfare, declared for him and Charles of
Durazzo.

Nothing daunted by her falling fortunes and the
perils which threatened her throne and life, Joanna
took her courage in both hands, like the brave
woman she was, and determined to make a bold
fight for it. She placed great confidence in the
valour of her husband Otho, although his adherents
were few compared to those of Charles, and she
trusted also in the false promises of her Neapolitan
barons, many of whom ultimately deserted her. But
her greatest hope was in her Provencal fleet, which
she had summoned to her aid ; but this took a long
time in days when there were no telegraph-wires
to communicate her wishes to them, and only the
wind and their oars to bring them when summoned.
When matters became more desperate, and

URBAN THE SIXTH.

p. 298]

Joanna is Excommunicated 299

Durazzo was fast approaching Naples, she sent
the Count of Caserta to France, to entreat her
new heir, Louis of Anjou, to hasten to her aid
as quickly as possible, and he did his best to respond
to her appeal. He set about collecting a large
army; but the long distance from Naples and the
difficulty of finding provision to feed his men,
when there was no such thing as a commissariat,
delayed his arrival and gave rise to the Neapolitan
proverb, " The lilies of France will not take root a
second time in Italy."

The key to the kingdom of Naples was San
Germano, and here Otho, who was considered
one of the first captains of his day, prepared to
dispute Charles's advance. But many of the
Neapolitan barons who had promised to join him
there failed to keep their promises, and he was
obliged to retire and leave the mountain passes
open and fall back on Naples, where a body of
mercenaries in Joanna's pay reinforced him.

Durazzo followed him so quickly that on July 1 7th,
1 38 1, the two armies encamped at five in the even-
ing under the walls of the city, so close together
that the knights in the rival forces could recognise
each other.

Charles had with him the traitor, the Duke of
Andria, the Papal legate, Gentilis de Sangro, and
Urban's nephew Francis or Butillo Prignano, now
endowed with the empty tide of Prince of Capua,

3°° The Beautiful Queen

for the title was all he ever enjoyed from that
principality. Durazzo had also with him many of
the prominent Neapolitan barons, a whole band
of adventurers and malefactors, and some of the
principal municipal officers of Naples. Otho had
fewer barons in his army, as Joanna had kept most
of those whom she believed to be faithful to her
cause in the city to quell disturbances there if any
should arise.

For three hours the two armies remained in sight
of each other without attempting to fight. Charles
was afraid to give battle to Otho, though his army
was much the greater, lest the Neapolitans should
fall on his rear while the Prince of Brunswick was
engaging him in front. Otho had succeeded in
getting Charles between him and the city ; but this
manoeuvre was afterwards frustrated by the treachery
of some citizens belonging to Urban's party, who
managed to climb over the walls and told Durazzo
the citizens were divided into two parties — one for
Urban and him, and the other for Joanna and
Clement ; and they offered to conduct a few of his
followers across the sands to the Porta del Conceria,
an unguarded gate which was supposed to be
sufficiently protected by the sea.

Durazzo selected a few of his soldiers who could
swim, and sent them to this gate, which they reached
by swimming — some accounts say by wading through
the waves — and, finding it unlocked as well as

Joanna is Excommunicated 301

unguarded, they passed through and made straight
for the market-place. Here they raised the cry
of " Viva il Re Carlo e il Papa Urbano ! " and were
immediately joined by some of Charles's old friends
who were also Urbanists, and together they made
their way, fighting, to the Porta del Mercato, before
which Durazzo was encamped, and, before Joanna's
adherents could defend it, they opened it, and
Charles and a large body of his troops entered
the city.

No sooner were the Hungarian soldiers under
Charles inside Naples than they strongly fortified
the gate by which they had entered, and marched
to the Porta Capuana and placed another guard
there, and then proceeded to Porta Reale, which
was opposite to Otho's army, and guarded it against
their entrance.

Otho soon saw what was going on, and immediately
attempted to cut up the rearguard of the enemy ; but
he was only in time to destroy the band of Neapoli-
tans under Cola Mostone — who had deserted Joanna
— which he annihilated. The city was now in the
greatest confusion. Joanna's party were vainly
fighting against Charles's army and the Neapolitan
people, and those of the minor nobility and gentry
who could effect their escape fled to the surrounding
country.

Here we must pause to tell what had become
of Joanna during this siege. She who had on

3°2 The Beautiful Queen

former occasions put on her armour, mounted her
horse, and commanded her own troops — where was
she now ? And where was Louis of Anjou, and where
was the Provencal fleet on which her chief hopes
were based (for by them if necessary she might
escape to Provence), and her ever faithful and loyal
Provencal subjects — where were all these ?

CHAPTER XXI
Joanna is Besieged

THE Castel Nuovo, in which the Queen usually
resided when in her metropolis, had been
newly fortified and strengthened in the case of
eventualities, and here Joanna and her ladies-in-
waiting retired when the siege of the city began,
with sufficient provisions laid in to last them seven
months.

With Joanna were her two nieces — her eldest niece,
also named Joanna, who by virtue of her primogeni-
ture enjoyed the title of Duchess of Durazzo, which
she inherited from her mother, and her sister Agnes,
the widow of Can della Scala, Prince of Verona. The
Duchess of Durazzo was very rich, partly by inherit-
ing a handsome patrimony, partly through the wealth
she had accumulated by her parsimony and miserly
habits.

Before the siege began the Queen had asked the
Duchess to lend her some of her money, to cover
part of the expenses of the war, and to provide for

3°3

304 The Beautiful Queen

their defence, her own exchequer being low, and she
consequently in great need of money ; but the
younger Joanna refused, although her own safety
was at stake: her love of money was so great, that
she preferred to face the danger which threatened
her rather than part with it.

When the news of Charles's entrance into Naples
was brought to the Queen she was besieged at the
same time with appeals for help and protection from a
number of noble ladies and their children, who, with
many of the Clementine clergy and some of the
worthiest of the old barons of her kingdom, implored
her to admit them inside the castle with her and her
suite.

Joanna knew that if she granted this appeal her
provisions would only last one month instead of
seven, but she also knew that if she refused the
request of these helpless women and children and
old barons, and sent them away, she would be sending
them not only to death, but to endure horrors far
worse than death, at the hands of Charles's barbarian
Hungarians and lawless adventurers, and from the
ferocity of the mob and the infuriated populace.

She could not steel her heart to abandon these
delicate women and helpless children to save her
own life, so, with her characteristic but in this case
fatal generosity, she admitted them all to share her
last refuge.

We are not told what the other less generous

Joanna is Besieged 3°5

Joanna, the Duchess of Durazzo, said to this action ;
but, judging from her character, she was, we should
say, unlikely to approve it, and may have remon-
strated with her royal aunt. But if so she was
overruled, and all the petitioners were admitted
to the castle.

Joanna's one great and only hope now was in the
arrival of her Provencal fleet before her supplies
were exhausted, and at the beginning of the siege
this hope was very strong and well-founded. She
expected it every day to arrive and bear her away to
Avignon and the protection of the antipope, Clement,
until her newly adopted heir, Louis of Anjou, should
come with his army from France and expel Charles
of Durazzo.

But day after day passed and no fleet arrived, day
after day the besieged inhabitants of the castle scanned
the horizon from its towers in the hope of detecting
the sails of the belated galleys, on which all their
hopes were based, but all in vain : the days length-
ened into weeks and no sign of them rewarded the
anxious watchers.

And daily the rations grew smaller and smaller,
and the Queen and her nieces, the court and the
garrison, and all the women and children, priests and
barons she had admitted to share her fortune were
beginning to feel the pangs of hunger. Presently
they were reduced to feed on carrion, and were in
consequence assailed with sickness, and still no sign

20

306 The Beautiful Queen

of the Provencal fleet gladdened their aching eyes,
and anxiety gave place to despair among the weaker-
hearted ; but Joanna was courageous as ever, and
endured all these privations bravely.

Then one day her niece, Joanna, Duchess of
Durazzo, when they were reduced to extreme hunger,
put all her gold and jewels into a large vase, and
carried it into the Queen's presence and laid it at
her feet. Joanna looked mournfully at the treasure,
which, had it been offered to her when she asked
for the loan of it in her necessity, might have saved
all their lives, but was useless now, since there was
no possibility of exchanging it for food of any kind,
and putting the useless offering aside, said sadly :
" A sack of wheat would be more precious to
me now, my niece, than all this treasure. Let
that thief Charles, whom you have served so well,
have it."

Meanwhile Prince Otho, who was at his wits' end
to know what to do for the best to help his besieged
Queen, endeavoured to entice Charles Durazzo out
of Naples, to which end he returned to the walls,
and destroyed the aqueduct which supplied the city
with water, in the hope that Durazzo would be
forced, through want of the first necessity of life, to
come out and give him battle. Durazzo, however,
Was too wise to do anything of the kind. More-
over, the Neapolitans who had joined him showed
him many springs of fresh water which were in the

Joanna is Besieged 3°7

city, and from them he learnt that most of the
houses were empty, the inhabitants having made
good their escape by flight. They further counselled
him not to be so rash as to make a sortie, and per-
haps lose all he had already gained in one day, when
it was certain that the Queen and her garrison could
not hold out much longer, and must soon be forced
by the pangs of hunger to surrender.

Charles took this advice and remained in the city,
but he was not idle. He knew Castel Nuovo was far
too strong for him to take it by storm, so he did
not waste the strength of his soldiers by any
vain attempts, but contented himself with address-
ing the people and exhorting them to submit to
him and acknowledge him, whom they had known
so long as the heir to the throne, as Joanna's suc-
cessor ; and little by little the Neapolitans, or the
greater number of them, joined his party.

The fact that Charles was supported by the true
Pope, Urban, and that the Queen had been excom-
municated by him and had joined the cause of the
antipope, Clement, had much to do with this defec-
tion of her subjects.

Prince Otho, finding that his attempt to draw
Charles had failed, and that he was for the present
powerless to help Joanna, retired with his forces to
Aversa.

Joanna, who was now on the verge of starvation,
still hoped against hope for the arrival of the long-

308 The Beautiful Queen

looked-for galleys, which failed to come and rescue
her; and seeing that her ladies and the women
and children, and the garrison, were suffering all the
horrors of a siege when the provisions are all but
exhausted, began to think of surrender. She could
not see all these her dependents perish, even if she
were willing to die of starvation herself ; so she de-
cided to send her pronotary, Ugo de Sanseverino
to Charles to try to come to some terms or arrange
a truce.

This she did ; and Durazzo, who was nearly related
to Sanseverino, and knew him to be one of the most
powerful barons in the kingdom, received him well.
But the utmost concession he would grant the Queen
was five more days, at the close of which, if she were
not relieved, she was to surrender ; but he promised
that in this case she should not be removed from Castel
Nuovo, but should be served there by her usual suite.

Durazzo's game now was to get Joanna to surrender
willingly, and to acknowledge him once more as her
heir ; and with this object in view he sent a deputa-
tion of nobles to her to reassure her of his filial
affection and submissive reverence for her. And to
emphasise these assurances — in which he could hardly
expect his adopted mother to place much faith, see-
ing he had so long been plotting to seize her throne —
he sent her every day fruit and poultry for her table,
and gave orders that she was to be supplied abun-
dantly with all she required for her own use.

Joanna is Besieged 3°9

If the besieged inhabitants of the castle had
watched anxiously for the expected ships from
Marseilles before, they now spent every hour of the
five days of truce in looking anxiously from every
available window and tower for some sign of their
approach — but in vain.

Joanna, whose faith had always been very strong,
was now a very devout woman, and spent much of
her time in prayer before the altar in her private
chapel in the castle. But neither did prayer seem to
avail her, as far as the hoped-for fleet was concerned,
for it did not make its appearance, and when the
fifth day of the truce dawned there was still no sign
of it.

During the truce Joanna had managed to send to
Aversa to conjure her husband to make one more
effort to rescue her; and on this fifth day Otho led
his forces through the road of Piedigrotta, past the
island of Ischia, till he reached the barriers Durazzo
had erected before the Castel Nuovo, and tried to
throw provisions into the castle.

This led to a pitched battle between him and
Charles's soldiers, both sides fighting with such
desperate valour that for a long time the result was
very doubtful. The combatants were so close to
the castle that the Queen was able to watch the
fight from the windows. Perhaps Otho may have
caught sight of her majestic figure — at any rate,
her proximity and the knowledge of her captivity

3 ro The Beautiful Queen

and sufferings so maddened him that he made a
desperate attempt to seize the standard of Charles,
which was surrounded by the bravest and most
accomplished knights, who had fought with Durazzo
in the wars of Hungary and Venice.

Otho's men, many of whom were recently re-
cruited, were unable to cope with these well-seasoned
soldiers, and he soon found himself alone in the
thickest of the fight, where he received several
wounds ; but he still fought bravely on. The
thought of his beautiful Queen and the threatened
loss of her throne stimulated him, who was known
as one of the bravest soldiers of his time ; but
fate was against him. His horse accidentally fell,
and the brave and wounded Prince was thrown to
the ground and taken prisoner in sight of Joanna,
who is believed to have witnessed this last blow
to her hopes.

With Otho were Baldassero of Brunswick, his
brother ; Robert, Count of Artois, the husband of
the Duchess of Durazzo, who now enjoyed the
title of Duke of Durazzo ; the Count of Ariano, and
Jacimo Zurlo, the head of the Neapolitan gentry.
When Otho was taken prisoner his troops were
seized with such a panic that all the efforts of
Baldassero of Brunswick and Robert of Artois failed
to rally them, and they ignominiously fled in all
directions. Many of them dismounted and left
their horses loose, and climbed up the sides of the

Joanna is Besieged 3 11

mountain upon which the Castel St. Elmo stands,
to take refuge within its thick walls.

At the time a gale was blowing and a very heavy
rain was falling, which prevented Durazzo's soldiers
from following them ; but the horses they had left
behind were seized by the Neapolitan people, who
spent hours in catching them.

The battle was now completely lost. Otho's
principal captains, Baldassero of Brunswick, Robert
of Artois, the Count of Ariano, and Zurlo succeeded
in escaping, but a good many of the nobles who had
relations inside the city joined them, on receiving
assurances of safety, and went over to the enemy's
side, as Joanna's cause was now considered hopeless.

This contest, so disastrous to Joanna, took place
on August 25th ; and on the next morning she sent
her surrender to Charles, as there was still no sign
of the ships from Marseilles, and the time of the
truce had expired.

When Charles reached the castle on the morning
of the 26th he found the Queen, who — torn with
anxiety for her wounded husband, now a prisoner
in her enemy's hands — had passed a terrible night,
walking in the garden, wishing perhaps to enjoy a
little fresh air before she herself was made a prisoner.

Her majestic dignity was not without its effect
on her ungrateful conqueror ; and partly from long
habit, pardy perhaps from a sense of shame, he fell
on his knees at the feet of his adopted mother, as

3 12 The Beautiful Queen

though she were still his sovereign instead of his
prisoner. Joanna looked sadly down on her former
heir, whom it is said she now hated, and said :

" Charles, I will not enumerate all the benefits
I have bestowed upon you, for it would ill become
a captive to humiliate her conqueror. Heaven and
earth behold us and will judge between us. Re-
member only my regal dignity, if anything sacred
can still find a place in your memory, and treat
my husband with the respect due to a prince of
his rank."

Charles rose from his knees, and made fervent
protestations of reverence and love for Joanna,
assuring her that he would never have attempted
to snatch her kingdom from her if he had not
been persuaded that Otho intended to dispute it
with him in case of her death.

Joanna, who was the same age as Otho, and of
a very good constitution, knew what value to
attach to this false excuse for conduct which was
inexcusable. She commanded her anger, and, with
her usual royal dignity, eloquently begged him to
treat Prince Otho honourably, as befitted his rank ;
and implored him to have mercy on all the captives
in the castle, and especially on the Clementine
clergy, who feared the punishment their schismatical
conduct would draw on them from Urban, whose
violent temper was well known, and who could not
be expected to show them much mercy.

From an early woodcut portrait, by kind permission of Mr. St. Clair Baddeley.

CHARLES THE THIRD OF NAPLES.
p. 312]

Joanna is Besieged 313

Charles, though now he had acquired the kingdom
of Naples by force, was not content with this, but
wanted also the rich inheritance of Provence, and,
knowing that more was to be obtained of Joanna
by kindness and consideration than by threats or
attempts at frightening her into submission, trusted
that he might still be able to delude her into making
him once more her heir.

With this object in view he gave orders that,
although his prisoner, she was to be treated with
regal honours, and approached with all the customary
forms, and attended by her usual officers and ladies-
in-waiting.

On the fourth day after her surrender the long-
looked-for Provencal fleet appeared, too late to be
of any use, only adding, as it must have done,
fresh bitterness to the anguish of the unhappy
Queen when she saw its masts on the horizon. It
was composed of twelve armed galleys, commanded
by Angeluccio di Rosarno and Ludovico Antonio,
Count of Caserta. Charles, as soon as he was
notified of their arrival, went up to the castle to
have another interview with Joanna, and endeavour,
by fawning upon her, to persuade her to make
him her heir.

He addressed Joanna as his Queen and beloved
mother, renewed all his professions of loyalty, and
saying she must now be convinced of his sincerity,
he humbly begged her to nominate him heir of all

3H The Beautiful Queen

her dominions in Provence, and to put all the
foreign troops, which had at last so tardily arrived,
under his command.

Joanna, who had no longer the least faith in the
professions of Charles, and knew that the result
of any document she might sign would be to lead
her either to the scaffold or to lifelong captivity,
could not be induced by promises or persuasions
to grant this request. She knew too that her only
hope — and that a very faint one — was in Louis of
Anjou, whom she had already nominated her heir,
and to offend him by making Charles her successor
would be to cut off her only hope of release from
captivity and restoration to her throne.

She inwardly resolved that she would be faithful
to Louis of Anjou, and not risk alienating him
for ever from her cause, but, pretending to believe
Charles, she said to him :

" Give my captains a safe pass, that they may land
and come to me and take my orders."

Charles, deceived by her composure, and thinking
that he had at last prevailed upon her to acknow-
ledge him again as her heir, acceded to her request,
and granted a safe-conduct to the Count of Caserta
and the chosen deputies from the Provencal galleys,
and consented that they should have an audience
of Joanna in his absence.

CHAPTER XXII
The Captive Queen

JOANNA was celebrated for her oratory ; we
have seen her pleading her own cause before
Pope Clement VI. and his Cardinals in the Con-
sistory-court at Avignon with consummate skill, and
on other occasions we have heard her haranguing
her councillors, but never perhaps was she more
eloquent than now, when the Count of Caserta and
the Provencal barons were admitted to her presence.
Neither Charles nor any of his followers were present :
only Joanna and her court were in the room when
the French deputies were introduced.

Traces of the terrible privations and anxiety she
had gone through were visible on the Queen's beauti-
ful face, on which both mental and physical suffering
had left their marks ; but her customary majestic
grace and dignity had not deserted her, and with
them she greeted the Provencal subjects who had
come too late to save her throne. If they expected

315

316 The Beautiful Queen

reproach for their fatal delay they were not dis-
appointed, for they were received with it.

" Why, my friends, why have you so long delayed
to succour me ? I have suffered what no woman
and hardly any man can bear. By your negligence
I have been forced to eat the vilest food, the putrid
flesh of the lowest animals, and have been forced
to surrender myself into the hands of a cruel enemy
and become a slave. It is now too late, too late
to help, but it is not too late for revenge. If you
have not forgotten the good deeds of my house,
and my true love for you, and the many benefits
you have received from me ; if you have any
remembrance of your oath of fidelity to me, then
I conjure you by that solemn allegiance, never in
any manner or at any distance of time acknowledge
as your lord that ungrateful robber who from a
Queen has made me a captive slave.

" Give not yourselves up to that traitor who has
pushed me from my throne. If ever it shall be
told you that I have made him my heir, believe
it not. If any writings are shown you to that
effect, they are either false or forced from me
without my consent.

" My will is that you own for your lord and
master Louis of Anjou, my son and my heir, on
whom I have bestowed the inheritance, not only
of Provence and my Ultramontane States, but of
this kingdom of Naples also. Him I have chosen

The Captive Queen 317

to revenge this treason and violence against the
person of his unhappy mother. Hasten to him,
obey him truly and constantly. I do not beg
this of you. I command it earnestly and solemnly,
for I can still do it, since I am still your Princess,
placed by God over you to rule you. Go then to
Louis, Duke of Anjou, and render your obedience
to him. Take no more thought for me but to
perform my funeral rites and to pray for my soul."

Deeply moved by these words of their fallen
sovereign, the Provencal barons, with the tears
streaming down their weather-beaten cheeks, excused
their apparent negligence in not having arrived
sooner, testified to their intense grief at her cap-
tivity, and vowing solemnly to obey her commands,
they took their leave, and hastened back to their
ships, to set sail at once for France to bring Louis
of Anjou to avenge his adopted mother's wrongs.
The Count of Caserta, who had ever been faithful
to Joanna, went with them, protesting his willingness
to die for her cause.

Durazzo returned to the Queen on the departure
of the French barons, to hear the result of the
conference, which was very different from what he
had anticipated, and he learnt from Joanna's own
lips that she had performed her last act of
sovereignty and, as her honour demanded, urged
her Provencal subjects to be true and loyal to
Louis of Anjou, her present heir.

3 l8 The Beautiful Queen

Louis of Anjou was the most accomplished of
the three splendid sons of John the Good, King of
France. The late King Charles V. was the eldest
of these three brothers, Louis, Duke of Anjou, the
second, Philip was the third. They were all three
highly cultivated men, fond of splendour and great
possessions, and of art, of which they were liberal
patrons ; but Louis was the most celebrated for his
valour, and also for his magnificent collections of
pictures, china, plate, jewels, books, and valuable
MSS. He took great delight in all these, but he
parted with many of his treasures to raise money
for his expedition to Naples to secure his Sicilian
throne.

Charles's wrath at finding Joanna had outwitted
him, and defeated the object he had had in view
when he granted her an interview with the French
deputies, was very great ; and when he saw the
masts of the French galleys disappear below the
horizon, as they were hastening to help his rival,
he was furious, and determined to try the effect of
harsh treatment upon his victim. With this end
in view, he first of all had the Queen removed to
the Castel del Ovo under a strong guard, as a
prisoner, but he allowed some of her ladies-in-
waiting to go with her.

Her niece Agnes, widow of the Prince of Verona,
who with her elder sister, Joanna, Duchess of
Durazzo, were taken prisoners with the Queen,

The Captive Queen 319

was now married to the son of the Duke of Andria
by Charles, who, to promote his own interests,
bestowed her upon one of the Queen's greatest
enemies like a captive slave, without consulting
her.

Later on, when Charles had offended Urban,
and it was rumoured that the Pope thought of
deposing him in favour of this son of the Duke
of Andria, who by this marriage had a double
claim to the succession to the throne, Charles
caused Agnes and her two innocent children, and
Joanna of Durazzo, to be thrown into a dungeon,
where they all died of starvation and misery, some
say of poison.

The Queen had surrendered at the end of August,
and on November nth, St. Martin's day, Charles
and his wife Margaret were solemnly crowned in
the Cathedral of Naples, after taking the oaths of
allegiance to Urban as the true Pope. When
Charles was led in procession round the city after
his coronation, under a canopy of state, the Duke
of Andria, who had not yet deserted him, held his
bridle on one side, and the Count of Conversano
on the other. Before six months had passed, both
these noblemen had gone back to Joanna's cause.

Great efforts were made to restore cheerfulness
to Naples after the coronation by means of banquets
and pageants, and all the shows in which the
Neapolitans were known to delight ; but so many

320 The Beautiful Queen

families were in mourning for their relatives who
had perished in the war, and so many houses were
empty, as their owners had fled the city, that all the
rejoicings did little to dispel the general gloom.

Very soon Charles found that it was very difficult
for a usurper to satisfy the claims of his partisans,
and impossible to content the ambition of his sup-
porters, and the fickle Neapolitans soon began to
return to their old allegiance.

The Counts of Ariano, Fondi, and Aversa had
remained in arms for Joanna, and they were now
joined by that rebel, the Duke of Andria, the San-
severini family, and the Counts of Conversano,
Lece, and Montenovo. The Sanseverini and the
Duke of Andria were deadly foes, nevertheless
they now acted in concert, Charles having estranged
Andria because he was unable to give back all his
former possessions of which Joanna had deprived
him, and the Sanseverini were jealous and disgusted
with Charles for giving Agnes of Verona as wife
to the son of the Duke of Andria.

But where, it may well be asked, was Louis of
Anjou all this time ? For his delay in coming to
Joanna's aid was partly the cause of the final
tragedy. That delay was in the first instance un-
avoidable, as his post of Regent, to which he was
appointed on the death of Charles V., rendered
his presence in Paris as necessary as it was un-
doubtedly agreeable to him. In June, 1 3 8 1 , Louis,

The Captive Queen 321

who seems to have been enjoying himself very
much at the time in his new position, received,
through the Count of Caserta, Joanna's desperate
appeal for help in her extremity, and, having called
a Council together, he decided to leave France im-
mediately for Naples and claim his inheritance.
Then came the news of Charles's successes, and
Louis realised that he had a kingdom to reconquer,
as well as a frontier to defend, before he could
take possession of his Sicilian inheritance. Under
these difficulties his zeal to go to help Joanna seems
to have cooled considerably, and after vacillating a
great deal, as fresh news from Naples reached him,
France decided to abandon Joanna to her fate.

This was in October, and after a while Louis,
tired of doing nothing, and regretting that he had
let his Sicilian crown slip through his fingers, entered
into correspondence with the Neapolitan ambassador,
and went to Avignon to consult with the antipope,
Clement VII., and to try to get the Provencals to
acknowledge him as their prince, and help him to
win the Sicilian throne.

He stayed four months in Avignon, and received
the encouragement of Clement to proceed to Italy,
and on March 1st Clement invested him with the
title of Duke of Calabria, reserved for the heir-
presumptive to the throne of Naples.

He spent another three months collecting troops
in Provence, and having been joined by the Duke

21

322 The Beautiful Queen

of Savoy, at last, after all these maddening delays,
he set sail for Naples at the head of a large army,
amid the shouts of the Provencals of " Vive Pape
Clement VII., Vive Madame la Reine Jeanne I.,
Vive le due de Calabrie ! "

While he is leaving Marseilles with his splendid
troops we must return to Naples to see what was
going on there, and in so doing we must not forget
that the Neapolitan revolution was a double re-
volution — it was religious as well as political. In
acknowledging the usurper Charles III., so wrongly
named "of Peace," the Neapolitans acknowledged
the authority of the true Pope, Urban VI., and in
deposing and deserting Joanna they condemned
Clement VII. as antipope, and threw off their allegi-
ance to both their temporal and spiritual sovereign,
though the latter was a usurper.

There had entered into Naples with Charles, the
Papal legate, Gentile de Sangro, who, if the
Urbanists in Naples had suffered under Joanna,
now immediately began to rule the Clementine
clergy with a rod of iron. In one day, according
to Urban's secretary, de Niem, he dismissed no
fewer than thirty-two Clementine abbots, bishops,
and archbishops ; and not content with depriving
them of their benefices, he cast them into prison,
and those who refused to acknowledge Urban were
sent to the scaffold. Among these last was the
Archbishop of Salerno.

The Captive Queen 323

A remarkable scene took place in the Church
of St. Clare in Naples. The two Clementine
cardinals who were taken prisoners with Joanna
were led into this church among a vast crowd of
people, and one of them, Cardinal de GifFone, in-
timidated by the presence of Charles of Durazzo
and the Legate, di Sangro, denied the antipope,
Clement, and burnt his hat, while the robes and
hat of his companion, Cardinal d'ltro, were con-
sumed in the same flames. After being thus
publicly degraded, together with some other Clemen-
tine prelates, they were cast into prison, where
Cardinal d'ltro died.

To strengthen his position in Naples, Urban now
created a large number of Neapolitan cardinals,
some of whom, later on, when Durazzo had in-
curred Urban's displeasure — their patience with the
Pope's conduct being exhausted — conspired against
Urban, with the idea of putting him under restraint
as mad, or of delivering him into Durazzo's hands.
In reprisal for this, Urban on discovering it put
six of them into irons in the cells at Nocera, and
then subjected them to torture.

Gentile de Sangro, who had himself tortured the
Clementine clergy, was one of these six victims
of Urban's cruelty, and, being an enormously stout
man, fainted when the executioners lifted him from
the ground with cords on to the rack, on which
he was thrice stretched.

3 2 4 The Beautiful Queen

The old Cardinal of Venice each time that he was
tortured exclaimed, " Christ suffered for us." The
same authority, de Niem, says that the man chosen
to apply these tortures was a Genoese pirate well
known for his hatred of clerics.

Historians differ as to the date on which Durazzo
caused Joanna to be removed from Castel del Ovo,
for fear that her presence in Naples should cause
a rebellion in her favour ; but it seems most probable
that it took place about March 28, 1382, and not,
as Giannone says, a few days after her surrender,
when, as we have said, she was taken to the Castel
del Ovo.

The Castle of Muro 1 was a great, gloomy fortress,
situated in Durazzo's own territory, inherited from
his father, in the province of the Basilicata, to the
south-east of Naples, and on this account it was from
his point of view a much safer place of detention
for the captive Queen. It stood in a wild, barren,
mountainous district in an isolated situation, not
easy of access, and as Joanna approached its gloomy
towers her heart must have sunk within her.

She had been treated fairly well on the whole at
Castel del Ovo, during her six or seven months'
imprisonment there ; but now her guard was made
much more strict, and composed in part of the
Hungarian soldiers, who hated her. Her nieces had

1 The author of " Rulers of the South " says he knows no castle
which gives so good an idea of baronial life in the fourteenth
century as this fortress of Muro.

The Captive Queen 325

been separated from her in Naples, but now she
was deprived of her ladies-in-waiting also ; and she
especially felt the loss of Clemence di Collennucci,
a young and pretty daughter of one of the Neapolitan
barons, to whom she was much attached, and who
was one of her maids-of-honour. Before Joanna was
taken away from Castel del Ovo, Clemence was torn,
weeping bitterly, from the unhappy Queen, and no
entreaties would induce Charles to permit her to
accompany her beloved mistress to her new prison.

It is said, however, that love found out a way
to circumvent Charles ; and a few days after Joanna
had been removed from Naples, Clemence, with
cropped hair, disguised as a Carthusian novice, and
Francis de Baux, Duke of Andria, who had now
returned to his allegiance to Joanna — clad in the
habit of a professed monk of the same Order — set
forth on foot to make a pilgrimage to Muro, and
endeavour to obtain admission in this guise to the
presence of the Queen, on pretence of offering
her spiritual consolation.

This romantic tale does not seem to be well
authenticated, and we doubt if it ever really hap-
pened ; but as the Italians say, " Si non e vero e
ben trovato " ; and we can but hope that Joanna's
last days were soothed by the presence of her
favourite attendant, whose high spirit and devotion
to her royal mistress may have given her courage to
run the grave risk she did if she made this attempt.

326 The Beautiful Queen

It is possible, even probable, that the Duke of
Andria may have earnestly desired an interview
with Joanna unknown to Durazzo, to endeavour
to persuade her to nominate his son (now married
to her niece Agnes of Verona), as her heir, and it is
quite likely he might have taken this step to attain
it. He may, too, have felt remorse for his former
rebellion against Joanna, which had been instru-
mental in bringing her to her present sad condition ;
he may have desired to ask her forgiveness, and
consult with her as to some way of attempting her
rescue ; and the only way to accomplish this was
to assume some disguise — and in those days that of
a monk was the safest, and the most likely to obtain
admission to the royal prisoner.

In this gloomy castle Joanna was kept in close
imprisonment for two months, and denied the
honours due to her high rank, before the final
tragedy took place.

At the same time that she was removed from
Naples, Charles caused her husband, Prince Otho
of Brunswick, his prisoner-of-war, to be taken to
the Castle of Altamura, on the extreme west of the
Basilicata. Joanna asked one favour of her con-
queror on reaching Castel del Muro, and that was
not for herself, but the release of her husband, Otho
of Brunswick ; and this request Durazzo ultimately
granted after Joanna's death, the account of which
we must reserve for another chapter.

CHAPTER XXIII
The Final Tragedy

T^OR two months Joanna dragged on a miserable
A existence in her gloomy prison, cut off from all
her friends and from holding any communication
with them, deprived of all the state and splendour
to which her high rank had accustomed- her, and
equally deprived of the occupations the duties of
her regal office afforded, and of the amusements
for which her brilliant court had so long been
famous.

Added to all these negative trials was the positive
one of anxiety as to the fate of her husband, Otho of
Brunswick, to whom she was deeply attached. Life
had now little to offer her, for she knew her
captivity was intended by her captor to be life-
long.

Her time was largely spent in the chapel, praying
before the altar. She had always been famous for
her love of devotional exercises and her strict

327

328 The Beautiful Queen

observance of ecclesiastical feasts and ceremonies,
but now she gave herself up almost entirely to
prayer.

Meanwhile the final catastrophe was hastened
to its ghastly consummation by the appearance of
part of Louis of Anjou's fleet in the Bay of Naples.
This arrived in the middle of May from Provence,
where Louis had collected an army of 35,000
knights to drive out the usurper and seize upon
the throne.

Urban VI. had by this time decided to depose
Charles Durazzo, who had offended him, and
daily the Neapolitan nobility were forsaking him
for Joanna, to whom in her distress they now
turned, and the universal desire among her sub-
jects for her restoration became more and more
evident.

The last straw which decided Charles to take
her life was an embassy from her old enemy, Louis
of Hungary, Charles's uncle, to congratulate him
upon his success, and to demand the death of the
Queen. Louis asked this as the price of his support
of Charles's cause and as a reward for his past
help.

Historians differ very much as to the details
of Joanna's assassination, some even going as far
as to excuse Charles from conniving at it ; but there
can be no doubt that he sent the four Hungarian
soldiers who actually accomplished the foul deed

The Final Tragedy 329

to Muro for the purpose of murdering his aunt and
foster-mother, from whom he had received so many
favours and benefits. He dared not trust its per-
formance to any Neapolitan — he could not easily
have found one so base as to attempt it — and so he
chose four of his rude Hungarian soldiers, whose
hatred of Joanna and of all Neapolitans was intense,
and to whom the barbarous crime was a most
congenial task, while their master, Louis of Hungary,
who had always obstinately believed that Joanna
had been an accomplice in the murder of his brother,
Andrew of Hungary, looked upon it as a tardy act
of just retribution.

" Let Joanna die the same death which Andrew
suffered through her," he wrote to Charles.

Some accounts of the manner of Joanna's murder
say that she was smothered in bed with pillows,
others — and these are the most frequent — that she was
strangled. The version we are about to give, which
seems the most reliable, is taken from the works
of Urban's secretary, Theodoric de Niem, who was
at Naples during the time her remains were exposed
to public view, and no doubt had ample opportunities
for learning the truth.

It seems that on the morning of May 22nd, the
captive Queen, who was now treated like a common
prisoner, went to the chapel for her devotions, as
was her habit at this time, when the four Hungarian
soldiers secretly entered, and while two guarded the

33° The Beautiful Queen

door the other two crept up to the kneeling Queen,
and throwing a silken cord round her neck, strangled
her instantly.

The only redeeming feature in this ghastly, cruel
murder is that it was done quickly before the poor,
helpless Queen had time to realise their intention;
possibly before she even saw her murderers they had
done their work.

Probably Joanna had during these seven or eight
weeks at Muro prepared herself for death ; her
prayers had doubtless obtained her the pardon she
sought for her past transgressions, and at the
moment of death she was in the act of prayer.
There can be little doubt she was well prepared to
meet that great and most just Judge who alone
knows the secrets of all hearts.

When the news of her death was brought to
Charles, he ordered that her body should be taken
to the Church of St. Clare in Naples, and placed
in the choir there and exposed to the view of all
her people, that they might see her for themselves
that she was truly dead, and by that sad sight be
convinced that any further efforts to restore her to
her throne were in vain.

At the expiration of the eight days during which
she lay in state, she was interred in this same church
between the sacristy and the tomb of her late father,
the Duke of Calabria. Round it is sculptured a
Latin inscription to this effect :

From an engraving by J . Tt\ Cook.

THE TOMB OF JOANNA OF NAPLES.
In the Church of St. Clair at Naples.
P- 33°]

The Final Tragedy 331

" Here lies Joanna I., the illustrious Queen of Naples,

Happy at first, afterwards exceedingly to be pitied.

To Charles a daughter, tortured by another Charles,

She suffered death before her husband."

1832. May XXVII. 1

She was in the fifty-sixth year of her age, and the
thirty-ninth of her reign, when she was thus done to
death by her implacable enemy, Louis of Hungary,
and her ungrateful adopted son, Charles III., whose
name was execrated all over Europe as a matricide
when the news of Joanna's murder transpired. The
sad spectacle of her dead body in the Church of
St. Clare had quite the contrary effect to that which
Charles had hoped and intended to create. Even
those who had before been indifferent to her fate
were moved to compassion for her sufferings by the
sight of her corpse, and so indignant at Charles's
cruelty and ingratitude that they refused to submit
any longer to . his rule ; while those who had ever
been faithful to Joanna were now so exasperated
against Charles that they swore vengeance against
him, and joined the forces of Louis of Anjou.

Thus perished Joanna of Naples, one of the most
beautiful and most maligned of women, whose
praises, as we have seen, have been sung by the most

1 Inclyta Parthenones, jacet hie Regina Joanna

Prima, prius felix, mox miseranda nimis :

Quam Carlo genitam mulctavit Carolus alter,

Qua morte ilia virum sustulit ante suum.

MCCCLXXXII. XII. Maij V. Indict.

Camera. Giovanna I e Carlo III. Salerno, 1889.

33 2 The Beautiful Queen

celebrated men of her time, by Petrarch and Boccaccio,
and who is known to this day to the Neapolitan boat-
men, and has always been spoken of by Provencal
historians, as " the Good Queen Jeanne I."

There will always be a difference of opinion
among historians as to her merits, and the death of
Andrew of Hungary will ever remain one of the
unsolved mysteries of history ; the only thing that
seems certain about it being that Joanna had no part
in it, as not only her acquittal at the court of
Clement VI., but also her great grief at the time,
and her great clemency to all conclusively show.

Her beauty, her majestic presence, her moving
eloquence, her fascinating personality are now
things of the past, as dead to us as last year's
roses ; but the spell which she cast in her lifetime
over all who came in contact with her is immortal and
still clings to her name, and, as we have endeavoured
to show, makes her one of the most interesting
characters in history.

It is not our purpose to describe the subsequent
struggle between Charles Durazzo and Louis of
Anjou, or the scarcely less bitter contest between
the Pope, Urban VI., and his former protege. We
shall merely content ourselves with saying briefly
what became of the principal persons who have
figured in this historical tragedy, of which the
central figure was the great 'Sicilian Queen.

Her husband, Otho of Brunswick, was liberated

The Final Tragedy 333

by Charles two years after her death, and in reward
for some advice which he had given Durazzo,
Charles conferred upon him the principality of
Taranto. Some years later, when Louis II. of Anjou
grew up, Otho, with the aid of the Sanseverini,
succeeded in placing him upon the Neapolitan throne ;
and when Louis refused to live in Naples, the Prince
of Brunswick was offered the title and office of
Viceroy, but he yielded it to Sanseverini. He died
in Foggia in 1398, having survived Joanna fifteen
years.

Joanna's lifelong enemy, Louis, King of Hungary,
survived her only four months ; he was surnamed
the Great, and was deeply mourned by the Hun-
garians, who lost in him a good, brave, and wise
king, as celebrated for his victories in the field of
battle as for his private virtues, which together
earned him this title. In his dealings with Joanna
he allowed his natural affections for his brother
Andrew to overpower his sense of justice.

In the year following the assassination of Joanna,
Louis of Anjou, having in vain endeavoured to
provoke Charles Durazzo to an engagement outside
the walls of Barletto, withdrew with his army to
Bari, where a fever of a pestilential character broke
out in his camp, to which he succumbed on Septem-
ber the 2 1 st, in his forty-seventh year. He left two
sons, the elder of whom, Louis II., succeeded him,
and for a short time occupied the Neapolitan throne.

334 The Beautiful Queen

Charles Durazzo was lying dangerously ill of fever
at the time of Louis's death, but he recovered, and
as soon as he had settled affairs in Naples, which
Louis's death facilitated, he went to Hungary in
answer to an invitation from some of the Hungarians
to assume the crown. Here, after much plotting
and scheming on his side and counterplotting on the
part of the Dowager Queen Elizabeth and Maria,
who had been proclaimed " King " of Hungary on
the death of her father, whose only child she was, he
was foully murdered on February 7th, 1386.

A soldier in the pay of the Dowager Queen
Elizabeth struck him with a sword as he was in
the act of reading a letter, half severing his head
from his body. He lingered in great pain for two
days, and was finally smothered, as he showed signs
of recovering.

Thus retributive justice was dealt to the murderer
of Joanna in the prime of his life, for he was just
forty-one when the avenging angel overtook him.
As his quarrel with Pope Urban VI. had led to his
excommunication, he was denied Christian burial.

Charles III. was a little man, with fair hair and a
ruddy and smiling countenance ; he was affable and
very popular ; he was very generous to his partisans,
and a great patron of men of letters. He had many
good qualities ; he was a very brave and most
accomplished soldier. But his cruel ingratitude to
his foster-mother, against whom, no doubt, his uncle,

The Final Tragedy

335

Louis of Hungary, greatly prejudiced him, has
made a blot on his fair name which can never be
eradicated.

And here we take leave of this great but unhappy
Queen, who has so often and so aptly been called
the Neapolitan Mary Queen of Scots, whom she
resembled so much in some respects, notably in
her beauty and her misfortunes and in the mystery
which surrounds the assassination of Andrew of
Hungary and of Darnley. A parallel might also
be drawn between the conduct of Charles Durazzo
and the Earl of Murray.

Both these unhappy Queens will ever have their
admirers and their detractors, for their beauty
and their charm aroused envy among their con-
temporaries as well as admiration, and brought them
both cruel enemies as well as enthusiastic friends.

May we venture to hope that our readers, as far
as Joanna of Sicily is concerned, will rank among
the latter ?

(Benealoai? of tbe Hnaevine jfamtrg.

CHARLES I. OF ANJOU m.f BEATRICE, COUNTESS OF PROVENCE.
d. 1285. !

Charles II. m. = Maria of Hungary.
d. 1309.

Hungarian Link.
(1)

(=)

Neapolitan

Line.

(3)

House of Taranto,
(4)

House of Durazzo.
(5)

Charles Martel m. = Beatrice of Hapsburg. St. Louis, Robert the Wise m. =f 1. Violante of Aragon.

Bishop of 1278-1342. I 2. Sancha of Aragon, d. 1344.

Toulouse, i

(') (2) 1273-1296. (i)_ I

Canrobert m. v Elizabeth of Poland, dementia.
(1) I (a) (3)

Charles, Duke of Calabria m. =f t. Catherine of Austria.
d. 1329. I 2. Maria of Valois.

(I) ' I

(*)

Louis the Great, Stephen. Andrew m.
King of Hungary, b. 1326;

1320-1382. d. 1345.

JOANNA. JOANNA I. , Queen of Naples m. = i, Andrew of Hungary. Maria m. = 1, Charles, Duke

CO
Canrobert, d. in infanc}'.

w

1

Canrobert, d. in infancy.

1326-1345-

6. 1329.

(1)

(2)

I I

I*ran~esca, */. in infancy. Catherine, d. in infancy.

(3)

2. Louis of Taranto, 1325-1362.

3. (1364) James, King of Majorca,

d. 1366.
4- (i374) Otho, Prince of Bruns-
wick, d. 1393.

(4)

of Durazzo.
2. Philip of Ta-
ranto.

(*)

Philip of Taranto m. = Margaret of Coartenai.

(2) ! , (3)

(4)

Charles I., Duke of Durazzo m, == Agnes of Perigord.

(1) (2) ! (3)

Robert m. Marie, Louis m. = JOANNA I. Ijhilip m. Maria of Sicily, Margaret Charles II. m.

dau. of Duke of King of
Bourbon. Naples

1325-1362.

(0

in 1347 Joanna's sister, widow of in. Duke

Queen of C[harles,Duke of Durazzo. of Andria.

Naples.

(2)

Francesca, Catherine,

both d. in infancy.

(0

(2)

(3)

(4)

Maria of Loui3 ;;/.
Sicily.

(1)

Margaret Robert,
of Sanse- killed in
verini. battle.

LorJia. d. in Joanna, Duchess Agnes m, Margaret m. — Charles 111. T f Margaret,

infancy. of Durazzo, m. 1. Can della Scala. Queen of 1344-1386 j Joanna's niece and

Robert of Artois. 2. John of Andria. Naples. Kingof Naples. 1 adopted child.

(*>

Ladislas, King of Naples, d. 1414.

Louis, d. in irfancy. Joanna, Duchess of Durazzo, Agnes, in. 1. Can della Scala, Duke of Austria. Margaret, Joanna's adopted daughter,

m. Robert of Artois ; d. in prison. 2. John I. of Andria ; d. in prison. m. Charles III.

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SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND BOOKS
CONSULTED IN WRITING THIS BIOGRAPHY

" Historical Life of Joanna of Sicily." Anonymous. London,

1824. 2 vols.
" Scenes in the Life of Joanna of Naples." Mrs. E. F. Ellet.

Boston, 1840.
" La France et le Grand Schisme d'Occident." Valois. Vols.

i. and ii. Paris, 1896.
"Giovanna la Regina di Napoli." Matteo Camera.

Salerno, 1889.
"Joanna die Erste." Carl von Rotteck. Stuttgart, 1829.
" Crimes Celebres." Dumas. Vol. ii.
" Storia del Regno di Napoli." Gravina. 1769.
"Vita Nicolai Acciajuoli, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores."

Muratori.
' ' Delia Prima e Delia Secunda Giovanna." D. Crivelli. 1832.
" Vita di Giovanna, Regina di Napoli." Caraccioli.
Quarterly Review for 1824.
" Life of Petrarch." Mrs. Dodson. 1805.
" Revue des Questions Historiques." 1896. xlviii. and xxii.
"Queen Joanna I." An Essay on her Times. St. Clair

Baddeley. London, 1893.
''Histoires des Reines Jeanne I. et II." Alex. T. Guyot.

Paris, 1700.
" La Vie de Ste. Brigitte de Suede." La Comtesse de Flavigny.
Froissart's " Chronicles."
" Dictionnaire Critique." Bayle. Vol. iii.

337 22

33 8 Sources of Information

" Histoire des Papes." L'Abb6 Darras.

" Avignon, ses Histoires, ses Papes," etc. Joudon. London,

1842.
" Dictionnaire Historique." Bouillet. 1845.
" Ecclesiastical History." Mosheim.
" Harmsworth Encyclopaedia."
" Encyclopaedia Britannica."
" Middle Ages." Hallam.
" Papal Monarchy." William Barry.
" Mediaeval Rome." Miller.
" Histoire de l'Eglise." Lavisse et Rambaud.
" Essai sur les Mceurs." Voltaire, iv.
" Old Provence." Cook.
"European History." Lodge.

" Les Papes." Marin de Boylesve, SJ. Tours. 1893.
" Rulers of the South." Marion Crawford.
" Italian Republics." J. C. L. de Sismondi
" Clemens VI." Baluzio. Vol. ii.

INDEX

Acciajuoli, Angelo, Bp. of Flor-
ence, 138 et sqq., 148, 151

Acciajuoli, Nicholas, 123, 125,
138, 151, 197, 223, 228 ; his
birth and position, 39, 40 ;
and Joanna and Andrew, 51 ;
his promotion to be Grand
Seneschal, 79 ; and Andrew's
murder, 83, 93 ; and Joanna's
captivity at Aix, 141 ; has
audience with Clement VI.,
148, 156 ; and the invasion
of Louis of Hungary, 169 ;
and Petrarch, 195 ; and the
war in Sicily, 200, 203 ; and
the truce with King Frederick,
211 ; his death foretold by
St. Bridget, 225 ; his death,
226-7 ; an( i Boccaccio, 251

Adrian IV., Pope, 117

Agnes of Durazzo (Princess of
Verona), 135 et sqq., 242-3,
289, 303, 318-19

Alferino of Salerno, 272-3

Americus, Cardinal, 69-70

Andrew of Hungary (Joanna's
first husband), 4, 67 ; his
murder, 3, 79, 84 et sqq., 100-
i, 109, no, 184, 186, 209,
223, 329 ; his early marriage,
23 et sqq. ; his imbecility, 24-
5, 28, 31, 64 ; and King
Robert's will, 40 et sqq. ; his
coarseness, 45, 51, 78, 90; as-
cends the throne with Joanna,
48 ; and Friar Robert's plot-
ting, 49 et sqq. ; and the Court
of Love, 62-3 ; and the
Pipini brothers, 63 ; and

Joanna's coronation, 69 ; stays
at Aversa, 80 et sqq. ; his
burial in Naples Cathedral,
89 ; his death avenged by
Louis, 130 et sqq.

Andrew of Isernia, 233

Andria, Francis de Baux, Duke
of : his marriage to Louis of
Taranto's sister, 173-4, 2 4^ '<
his rebellion against Joanna,
263 et sqq., 279, 280 ; and
Charles of Durazzo, 287, 299 ;
returns to Joanna's cause,
319, 320, 325-6

Angelo of Perugia, 94, 233

Anselmo, 269

Ariano, Count of, 310-n, 320

Artus, Charles, 41, 79, 84, 92,
106-7, J 3 2

Austria, Duke of, 5

Aversa, Castle of, 80-1, 133, 261

Aversa, Count of, 321

Avignon, Petrarch at, 34 et sqq. ;
Papal Court at, 72 et sqq., 138
et sqq., 210, 224, 236, 244, 291 ;
the plague at, 161 et sqq.

Baddeley, Mr., 230

Baldassero of Brunswick, 310-11

Baldus of Perugia, 94, 233

Balliol, Edward, 76

Barbatus of Sulmone, 37, 43, 99

Barrili, John, 37, 227

Barruto, Abbot (Archbp. of

Naples), 291, 295
Baux, Hugh de, 101, 103
Baux, Raimond de, 125, 197,

200, 265-6
Baux, Rinaldo de, 182

339

34°

Index

Benedict XII., Pope, 75, 115

Beni, Due de, 148

Bernard of Rhodes, 295

Bianca of Sicily, Princess, 199,
200

Bianchi, the, 30

Birel, John, 193

Birger of Sweden, Prince, 252
et sqq.

Blanche of Dampierre, Princess,
24

Blanche, Queen of Sweden, 223

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 2, 4, 19,
37. 43. 79, 196, 208, 235, 332 ;
meets Maria of Sicily, 38 ;
his birth, 39 ; his works, 39 ;
his account of Joanna, 106,
233 ; his account of the
plague in Florence, 167 ; and
the brigands, 231 ; his "De-
cameron, " 247 et sqq. ; warned
by Father Ciani, 249 ; be-
comes a priest, 250-1 ; and
Nicholas Acciajuoli's treat-
ment of, 251 ; his death, 252 ;
his commentary on the
" Divina Commedia," 252

Bondone, Giotto de, 207-8

Boniface IX., Pope, 274

Braganza, Bp. of, 189

Brantdme, 221 ; his account of
Joanna's beauty, 43-4

Bridget of Sweden, St., 78, 193,
236, 271-2 ; her piety, 223-4,
270 ; works miracles, 225 ;
and Nicholas Acciajuoli's
death, 225-6 ; and Pope
Urban's return to Avignon,
244-5 ; her second visit to
Naples, 252 ; and her two
sons, 253-4 > received by the
Queen, 254-5 ; and Prince
Charles's infatuation for Jo-
anna, 255 et sqq. ; and her
son's death, 258 ; goes to the
Holy Land, 258 ; and the
Plague at Naples, 258-9 ; her
letter to the Queen, 259, 260 ;
receives a present of money
from Joanna, 261 ; her death
at Rome, 261-2 ; her canonis-
ation, 274-86

Brunelleschi, 207

Buondelmonte, Countess, 223

Bury, Richard de (Bp. of Dur-
ham), 37
Byron, Lord, 78

Cabassole, Bp. of Cavaillon,
Philip de, 41, 71-1, 79, 96 et
sqq.

Cajetano Onerato, 281-2, 295

Canrobert, King of Hungary, 6,
23 et sqq., 40-1, 108

Canrobert, Prince (son of Jo-
anna), 98 et sqq., 122, 124,
130, 134, 181

Caraccioli, his Life of Joanna,

19. 130

Casimir, King of Poland, 193

Catania, Raymond of, 85

Catherine of Austria (first wife
of Charles, Duke of Calabria),
18

Catherine of Siena, St., 78, 221-
2, 224-5, 252, 270 et sqq.,
285 et sqq., 293-4

Chabannes, Raimond de, 18

Charles I. of Anjou, 5

Charles, Duke of Calabria (father
of Joanna), 17, 331 ; his
justice, 8, 9, 206 ; his journey
to Florence, 10, n ; his
death, 14

Charles, Duke of Durazzo
(nephew of King Robert of
Naples), 74, 179 ; his marriage
to Maria of Sicily, 66 et sqq.,
7 and Andrew's murder,
83, 92, 102, 117; rebels
against Joanna, 107, 120 ;
and Joanna's second mar-
riage, 113 ; murdered by
Louis of Hungary, 129 et sqq.,

137. 187
Charles, Duke of Durazzo (son
of Prince Louis), 267 ; adopted
by Joanna, 202-3, 2 39 '• his
marriage to Margaret of Du-
razzo, 203, 242 et sqq. ; joins
Louis of Hungary, 239, 266,
279, 292 ; and Joanna's
second marriage, 269 ; his
attempts to depose Joanna,
287, 293, 295-6, 298 et sqq. ;
his entry into Naples, 301,

Index

34i

304 et sqq. ; and Prince Otho's
strategy, 306-7 ; his assur-
ances to Joanna, 308, 312 et
sqq. ; enters Castel Nuovo,
311 ; and Joanna's appointed
successor, 317-18 ; crowned
King of Naples, 319 ; his
difficulties, 320 ; his treat-
ment of Joanna, 324 et sqq, ;
and the murder of Joanna,
328 et sqq. ; liberates Otho,
333 ; his murder, 334 ; his
excommunication, 334 ; his
appearance, 334

Charles V. of France, 292, 296-7,
318, 320

Charles IV. of Germany, 74-5,
195

Charles Martel (son of Charles
II.), 6-7, 64, 71, 119

Charles II. of Naples, 213, 239

Charles of Sweden, Prince, 252
et sqq.

Ciani, Father Joachim, 249

Cicely, Duchess of Turenne,
146-7

Clare, St., Church of (Avignon),

34
Clare, St., Church and Monas-
tery of (Naples), 15, 20, 38,
42, 64, 65, 67, 206 et sqq., 282,

323. 330-1

Clement IV., 5

Clement VI., Pope, 131, 211,
235, 241, 246 ; his belief in
Joanna's innocence, 4, 42,
9$etsqq., 115, 169, 171; and
Maria's marriage, 67 ; and
Joanna's coronation, 69, 72 ;
and Joanna's wish to govern,
70, 71 ; his love of pomp, 73 ;
and the Jews, 74 ; his court
at Avignon, 142, 145 et sqq. ;
his attire, 153 ; Joanna pleads
her cause to, 155 et sqq., 315 ;
and the Mendicant Friars,
164-5 ; and the Flagellants,
166 ; and Louis of Taranto's
coronation, 170 ; and Louis of
Hungary, 184-5 ; and the
Neapolitan succession, 185 ;
his death, 191 ; his character,

192-3
Clement VII., the anti-Pope, I

315, 322 ; Joanna's partisan-
ship for, 3, 281, 285, 290, 307 ;
at war with Pope Urban VI.,
286, 288 ; goes to Castel del
Ovo, 288 et sqq. ; his recep-
tion by Joanna, 289 ; flees
to Gaeta, 291 ; and Louis of
Anjou, 298 ; Durazzo con-
sults with, 321

Collennucci, Clemence di, 325

Colonna, Cardinal, 34, 52-3,
163-4

Conradine, 5

Constantinople, Empress of.
See Princess of Taranto

Convulsionnaires, the; 143

Costanzo, 30, 51, 86, 269

Crillon, 142-3

Crispano, Landolpho, 255

Dancers, the, 144
Dante, 8, 38, 196, 248
Damley, Lord, 335
David II. of Scotland, 76
Durazzo, Duke of (son of

Charles II. of Naples), 6, 10,

66.

Edward III. of England, 75-6,

150
Edward, Prince of Wales, 216

et sqq.
Evoli, Count d', 49, 84-5, 91,

i°3

Faliero Marino, 78
Flagellants, the, 165
Flavio, Gioja, 235
Folard, Chevalier, 143
Fondi, Count of, 320
Francesca, Princess, 181-2, 190
Frederick Barbarossa, 117
Frederick of Sicily, 196 et sqq.,

211, 246
Frederick II. of Swabia, 5
Froissart, 215 et sqq., 230

342

Index

Galeazzo of Mantua, 219
Ghibellines, the, 29, 77, 165
Giannone, 4, 324
Gifione, Cardinal de, 323
Giovanni of Pisa, 207
Gravina, Bp. of, 246
Gregory XI., Pope, 246, 252,
254, 265-6, 270-1, 273 et sqq.
Guelphs, The, 29, 77, 140, 165
Guinguene, 248

H

Hawkwood, Sir John, 295
Henry IV. of France, 143
Henry of Transtamare, 217

Innocent VI., Pope, 194-5, 210

Innocent VII., Pope, 75

Isolda (Andrew's nurse), 82, 85

et sqq.
Itro, Cardinal d', 323

James I. of Aragon, 213
James II. of Aragon, 213
James I. of Majorca, 213
James II. of Majorca, 213-14
James III. of Majorca, 226 ; his
descent, 213 ; his marriage to
Joanna, 215, 223 ; his military
exploits, 215 et sqq.; his death,
230
Jerome, St., 250
Joanna, Duchess of Durazzo,
135 et sqq., 287, 289, 303,
305-6, 318-19
Joanna, Queen of Naples :
her biographers, 1, 3, 4
her beauty, 1, 2, 30-1, 43 et
sqq., 106, 122 et sqq., 233,

332
her birth, 12 et sqq.
her attendants, 17 et sqq.
her early years, 19 et sqq.
her education, 22, 30
oaths of allegiance to, 22, 31-2
her marriage with Andrew of

Hungary, 23 et sqq.

Joanna, Queen of Naples (cont.) :
and King Robert's will, 40 et

sqq.
and King Robert's death, 42
her supposed portrait, 44-5
proclaimed Queen, 48
and Friar Robert's plotting,

49, 5°
and Louis of Taranto, 51-2
her talent and learning, 55
and the great tempest, 59
her " Court of Love," 61 et sqq.
and Andrew's boorishness,

62-3, 78
and Maria's marriage, 69
her wish to govern, 70-1
her coronation, 72, 84
stays at Aversa, 80 et sqq.
and Andrew's murder, 86 et

sqq., 100-1, 103, 109 et sqq.,

184, 186, 209
her letters to King Louis, 88,

93. IQI
gives birth to a son, and the

execution of Philippa, 104 et

sqq.
her queenly bearing, 106, 211,

333
and the civil war, 107
her second marriage, to Louis

of Taranto, 114- 15
calls a council, 120-1
her speech, 121-2
taken prisoner to Aix, 125 et

sqq., 148-9
and her governors, 128
receives Maria and her chil-
dren, 137-8
and the Papal Court, 138, 141
her release, 148
her triumphant entry into

Avignon, 149 et sqq.
her reception by the Pope,

155 et sqq.
her gift of oratory, 159, 315
her defence, 159
her acquittal, 159, 160
receives the Golden Rose,

160-1, 241
her subjects invite her to

return to Naples, 168 et sqq.
her reception at Naples, 172
and her sister-in-law's mar*

riage. 173-4

mueA

343

Joanna, Queen of Naples {cont.) :
rewards Nicholas Acciajuoli,

174

her gay court, 175, 203

birth of her daughters, 181

and de Baux, 182-3

her second trial, 184

and the succession, 185, 238-9,
243-4, 292

her coronation, 186 et sqq., 196

death of her little daughter,
190

and death of Clement VI., 197

crowned Queen of Sicily at
Messina, 197

and the King of Sicily's sisters,
199, 200

and the civil war, 200-1

pardons Louis of Durazzo, 202

adopts Charles of Durazzo as
her heir, 202

adopts Maria's daughter. Prin-
cess Margaret, 203

and Louis' death, 203

her widowhood, 204 et sqq.

builds churches and institu-
tions, 206-7

her piety, 206, 309, 327 et sqq.

as a ruler, 208, 232

and Philip of Taranto, 211-12

her suitors, 212

her third marriage to James
of Majorca, 214

her husband's absence, 215 et
sqq.

and Galeazzo's admiration for,
219

and Galeazzo's knights, 220

receives St. Bridget of Sweden,
224

her piety, 224

sends out an army against
Ambrose Visconti, 229 et sqq.

and the death of her husband,
230

suppresses brigandage, 231

her advisers, 233

celebrities of her reign, 235

visits Pope Urban V. at Rome,
238 et sqq.

and Charles of Durazzo's in-
gratitude, 239, 266, 287

favoured by the Pope, 240 et
sqq.

Joanna, Queen of Naples (cont.) :

and Peter of Lusignan, 242

her affection for Charles of
Durazzo, 243

and the independence of
Sicily, 246

and Prince Charles of Swe-
den's admiration for, 252 et
sqq.

and Prince Charles's funeral,
258

St. Bridget's letter to, 259, 260

her present of money to St.
Bridget, 261

and St. Bridget's death, 262

and Duke of Andria's rebel-
lion, 263 et sqq.

her fourth marriage to Prince
Otho of Brunswick, 267 et
sqq.

and St. Catherine, 272, 286-7

her regard for Urban VI.,
278-9

and Cardinal Orsini, 280

supports the anti-pope, Clem-
ent VII., 281, 288, 294

Urban VI. 's enmity to, 280,
282

her mission to Rome, 282

her anger at Urban's insults,
284

receives Clement VII. at
Castel del Ovo, 28S et sqq.

excommunicated by Urban
VI., 294

elects Louis of Anjou as her
successor, in place of Charles
of Durazzo, 296, 298

and Charles Durazzo's ad-
vance on Naples, 295 et sqq.

retires to Castel del Nuovo,
303 et sqq.

her privations, 304 et sqq.

and Joanna of Durazzo's
offering, 306

her surrender to Charles, 311
et sqq., 319

her speech to Charles, 312

her speech to the Provencal
barons, 315 et sqq.

removed to Castel del Ovo,

taken to Castel del Muro, 324
and her maid of honour, 325

344

Index

Joanna, Queen of Naples (cont.) :

her affection for her husband,
326-7

her murder, 329 et sqq.

her lying-in-state, 330-1

her epitaph, 331

compared with Mary, Queen
of Scots, 335
John of Bohemia, Prince, 24
John I. of France, 126, 194, 212,

228
John XXII., Pope, 7, 20, 23, 31,

192

Landuccio, Neri di, 287
Laura. See Laura de Sades
Louis of Anjou, adopted by
Joanna as her heir, 287, 292,
296, 305, 314, 316 ; declared
Regent of France, 297, 320-1 ;
Joanna seeks his aid, 299 ;
his valour and costly collec-
tions, 318 ; his fleet in the
Bay of Naples, 328, 331 ; his
struggles with Charles of
Durazzo, 332 et sqq.
Louis, Prince of Durazzo, 200

et sqq.
Louis XIV. of France, 143
Louis IV. of Germany, 74 et sqq.,

115. I9i
Louis, King of Hungary, 149,
228, 239, 242, 244, 266, 279 ;
his proposed marriage to
Princess Maria, 40, 64, 66 et
sqq., 109 ; and his brother
Andrew's murder, 88, 92 et
sqq., 130 et sqq., 185-6, 329,
332 ; Joanna's letters to, 88,
101-2 ; invades Joanna's do-
minions, 108, 116 et sqq., 128 ;
his letters to Joanna, 109,
in ; demands Naples, 115 ;
accuses Joanna, 115 ; his
treachery, 129 ; murders the
Duke of Durazzo, 132-3, 135 ;
abducts Prince Canrobert,
134 ; his ambassadors at
Avignon, 155 ; retreats from
Naples, 168 ; enters Apulia,
180 ; challenged by Louis of
Taranto, 180; and the siege of
Aversa, 181 ; enters Naples,

183 ; and the Pope's com-
mands, 184 ; and the Treaty
of Peace, 185 et sqq. ; and
Joanna's death, 328-9, 331 ;
his death, 333

Louis, Prince of Taranto (Jo-
anna's second husband), 3, 40,
52, 62, 83, 107, 125, 131, 148,
160, 195, 229 ; his personal
appearance, 51, 112, 175 ; and
Andrew's murder, 92 ; his
love for Joanna, 113 ; his
marriage, 114 et sqq., 223;
fights against Louis of Hun-
gary, 118 et sqq. ; forbidden
to enter Florence, 140 ; sails
for Provence, 141 ; enters
Avignon in state, 151, 161 ;
received by the Pope, 156 ;
his coronation, 171, 186 et sqq.
returns to Naples with Jo-
anna, 171 ; his popularity,
175 ; his profligacy, 175 ; and
Warner and Wolf, 176 et sqq. ;
kills Rinaldo de Baux, 183 ;
and the succession, 185 ;
thrown from his horse, 189,
190 ; crowned King of Sicily,
197 ; returns to Naples, 201 ;
his vices, 203-4 ; his death,
203, 209 et sqq.

Louis, St. (Bp. of Toulouse), 6, 7

Ludovico, Antonio, Count of
Caserta, 313 et sqq., 317, 321

Luke of Isemia, 233

M
Magnus II. of Sweden, 24, 223,

245
Malateca, Giovanni, 229
Manfred, 5
Margaret of Durazzo, Princess,

203, 243, 269, 289, 293
Margaret, Queen of Sweden, 24
Margaret of Taranto, Princess,

246, 263, 279
Maria, Duchess of Calabria

(mother of Joanna), 10 et sqq. ;

her apartments, 12 et sqq. ;

birth of a second daughter, 15;

her death, 16
Maria, Duchess of Durazzo

(Joanna's sister), 43, 173, 182,

index

345

242, 287 ; her birth, 15 ;
and the succession, 22, 40 ;
her proposed marriage to the
King of Hungary, 40-1, 64,
133 ; her marriage to the
Duke of Durazzo, 67 et sqq.,
72, 79, 109 ; and the throne
of Naples, 113, 120 ; informed
of her husband's murder, 135 ;
flees to Santa Croce, 135-6 ;
goes to Joanna, 136 et sqq. ;
marries Prince Philip of Tar-
anto, 203 ; her death, 238

Maria of Hungary (wife of
Charles II. of Naples), 6

Maria of Sicily (daughter of
King Frederick), 282

Maria of Sicily (King Robert's
natural daughter), 38

Martini, Simon, 208

Mary, Queen of Scots, 1, 43, 335

Masuccios, the Two, 207-8

Milan, Duke of, 215

Minervino Count de, 116, 172,
178, 201-2

Mirazzano, Michael de, 84, 102

Molta, Bertram della, 188

Montferrat, Marquis of, 282

Montoni, Countess of. See Phil-
lipa the Catanese

Moriale, Fra (Montreal d'Al-
bano), 179, 180

Muratori, 87

Muro, Castle of, 94, 324 et sqq.

Murray, Earl of, 335

N

Neri, the, 30

Nericia, Princess of. See St.

Bridget of Sweden
Nicholas of Hungary (governor

of Andrew), 27, 49, 62, 91,

108, 116
Nicholas of Naples, 233
Nicholas of Pisa, 207
Niem, Theodoric de, 329
Nuovo Castel, 288 ; the siege

at, 303 et sqq.

O

Orlando, Prince of Aragon,
198-9

Orsini, Cardinal, 277, 279, 285

Orsini, Giovanni, 295, 297

Orsini, Rinaldo, 295, 297

Orsini, Robert, 273

Orsini, the, 30, 52

Otho of Brunswick, Prince (Jo-
anna's fourth husband), 271,
297, 312 ; meets Joanna, 267 ;
his marriage, 268 ; and Pope
Urban VI., 280, 283-4 ; his
bravery, 298 ; fights against
Charles of Durazzo, 298 et
sqq. ; and the besieged Queen
306 et sqq. ; taken prisoner by
Charles of Durazzo, 326 ;
liberated by Charles, 333 ;
his death, 333

Ovo, Castel del, 124, 254, 268j
288 et sqq., 296, 318

Pace, Jacobo de, 84, 92, 102
Paris of Pozzuoli, 235
Paul of Perugia, 7, 37-8
Pedro III. of Aragon, 213
Pedro IV. of Aragon, 213
Pedro I. of Spain (the Cruel),

77, 195, 216 et sqq.
Peter Damien, St., 47
Peter of Lusignan, King of

Cyprus, 240-42
Petrarch, 2, 4, 28, 31, 50, 83,
150, 196, 235, 332 ; his
writings, 33 et sqq. ; his ap-
pearance and accomplish-
ments, 33-4 ; his love for
Laura, ^etsqq., 162-3; hi s
great learning, 36 ; wins the
laurel crown, 36 ; his
" Africa," 37 ; and King
Robert's death, 42-3 ; his
description of Naples, 53-4 ;
his preferment, 55 ; and the
great tempest, 55 et sqq. ; and
the gladiatorial combats, 60-
1 ; and the Court of Love, 62 ;
his epitaph on King Robert,
65 ; and Clement VI., 73 ;
and Andrew, 90 ; and Jo-
anna's innocence, 94, 99 ;
visited by the Bp. of Flor-
ence, 138 et sqq. ; and the
Papal Court, 145, 193 ; and

346

Index

Pope Innocent VI., 194 ; and
Zanobi's laurel crown, 195 ;
and the quarrel between Ac-
ciajuoli and Barrili, 227 ; his
admiration for Joanna, 247 ;
and Boccaccio's library, 250 ;
his death, 252
Petroni, Father, 249, 250
Philip de Valois (King of France),

16, 75, 126
Philippa the Catanese, 3, 50, 68 ;
her origin, 17, 19, 22 ; takes
charge of Joanna, 17 et sqq. ;
her second marriage, 18 ; pro-
moted by Joanna, 48 ; and
the Princess of Taranto, 51,
69 ; and the murder of An-
drew, 83, 91, 103 ; her execu-
tion, 104-5
Philip of Taranto (Louis of
Taranto's younger brother),
203, 263
Philip, Duke of Tours, 212, 228
Piero, Cardinal, 277, 285
Pierre de Luna, Cardinal, 277
Pipini, the, 52, 63, 90, 201-2
Pius V., Pope, 153
Prignano, Francisco, 280, 282,
296, 299

R

Raimond of Capua, 286

Raimond the Moor (second
husband of Philippa the Ca-
tanese), 18

Rastrelli, 86

Ravignano, 291

Richard II. of England, 216

Rienzi, Cola de, 74-5, 115-16

Robert of Artois (afterwards
Duke of Durazzo), 76, 287,
310-11

Robert, Friar, 31, 69, 70, 78, 81,
84, 91 ; his characteristics,
27-8, 43, 50 ; plots against
Joanna, 49 ; and the Pipini
brothers, 63 ; his power, 82,
no ; returns to Hungary, 108

Robert, Prince of Taranto, 107,
113, 123

Robert the Wise (King of
Naples), 6, 12, 14 et sqq., 79,
91, 100, 107, 121, 139, 185,

208, 232 ; his ascent to the
throne, 7 ; his' learning, 7,
32 ; and the Duke of Cala-
bria's death, 14 ; and the
church of St. Clare, 15, 206-7 ;
and Philippa the Catanese,
1 7 et sqq. ; and Joanna's early-
training, 19 et sqq. ; arranges
a marriage for Joanna, 23 et
sqq. ; and the oath of alle-
giance, 22, 31-2 ; and Pe-
trarch, 36-7 ; his will, 40 et
sqq., 70 ; his death, 42 ;
Petrarch's epitaph on, 65
Rosarno, Angeluccio di, 313

Sades, Laura de, 34-5, 38, 43,

142, 162
Sancha (King Robert of Naples's
second w&e), 16 et sqq., 41,
48, 50, 64, 67-8, 70, 103, 206
Sancha (Philippa's grand-
daughter), 3, 79, 92, 103 et sqq.
Sangro, GentUis de, 299, 322
Sanguineto, Philip of, 41
Sanseverino, Ugo de, 308
Savoy, Duke of, 215, 266, 322
Simon, Count of Chiaramonte,

196, 199
Soult, Count de, 125
Spinelli, Nicholas, 280, 282-3
Squilazzo, Geoffrey, Count of, 41
Stephen, Prince, 178-9
Strada, Zanobi de, 195
Swinburne, Algernon C., 78

Talleyrand, Cardinal, 66-7, 193-

4
Taranto, Prince of (Louis' elder

brother), 201, 211-12
Taranto, Prince of, 10, 22
Taranto, Princess of (mother

of Louis), 40, 51, 67, 79, 83,

93. i°7
Taranto, Princess of (wife of

Robert), 123, 125, 246
Trastevera, Henry of, 77
Trelice, Count de, 85, 105
Tropea, Bp. of, 108
Turinga, Camiola, 197 et sqq.

maex

347

u

Urban V., Pope, 153, 161, 235,
273 ; and Petrarch's mar-
riage, 35 ; his friendliness
towards Joanna, 211 ; and
Joanna's third marriage, 212 ;
and St. Bridget, 224 ; and
the Viscontis, 228-9 ; decides
to return to Avignon, 244 ;
his death, 245-6

Urban VI., Pope, 322, 329 ; his
enmity towards Joanna, 4,
94, 279, 250, 295 ; his char-
acter, 278 ; his haughtiness,
281 ; his treatment of the
Cardinals, 281 ; and Joanna's
embassy, 282-3 ; insults
Prince Otho, 283-4 ; creates
twenty-nine new cardinals,
284-5 ; and Clement VII.,
the anti-pope, 286 et sqq. ; his
unpopularity, 293 ; excom-
municates Joanna, 294, 298 ;
supports Charles of Durazzo,
295-6, 307, 319 ; tortures the
rebellious Cardinals, 323-4 ;

now opposes Charles of Du-
razzo, 328, 334

Verona, Princess of. See Agnes

of Durazzo
Vico, Francesca de, 285
Villani, Matthew, 29, 93, 95, 114,

117, 164
Vinci, Leonardo da, 44
Violante (wife of King Robert

of Naples), 8, 17-18
Violante of Sicily, Princess, 199,

200
Virgil, 36
Visconti, Ambrose, 228 et sqq.,

257, 268
Visconti, Barnabas, 228 el sqq.

W

Warner, Duke, 17S et sqq.
Wolf, Conrad, 176 et sqq., 184

Zurlo, Jacimo, 310-n

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